


Someone Else's Destiny

by GleamAndDarken



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Character Development, Child Timeline (Legend of Zelda), Gen, Next Generation, Nonbinary Character, Original Character(s), Post-Twilight Princess, Pre-Breath of the Wild, Reincarnation, Slow beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25009240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GleamAndDarken/pseuds/GleamAndDarken
Summary: Hyrule has been at peace for centuries. The legends of the Hero of Time, the Twilight Invasion, and the final defeat of the wind mage Vaati have faded into obscurity. The people of the kingdom begin to forget about their past mistakes and live at ease. However, when darkness rises once again, a band of unlikely heroes must unite to find the fabled Triforce before it’s too late.Discontinued, but I’m trying to salvage the good parts of it into a rewrite.
Comments: 33
Kudos: 6





	1. An Uninvited Guest

**PART ONE: DISTANT WINDS**

Light flickered down through the waters of Lake Hylia, partially illuminating the zora who sat alone in the sand. With his eyes closed and head dipped forward, one could easily mistake him for being asleep. That is, if you could even see him; he was sitting in the deepest part of the lake, in front of the entrance to the ruined Lakebed Temple. Looking down from above the lake’s surface, his green scales almost blended in with the water.

“Are the fins damp lately?” Called a feminine voice that echoed clearly through the lake. Surprised that someone addressed him, the zora that was seated looked up and squinted, trying to find who was speaking to him. When a pale, familiar zora came into his line of sight, he smiled. She was one of the priestesses who often visited the temple to pray and rid it of monsters. They typically came and went silently during his meditation.

Instead of calling back to her, he smiled and nodded. She grinned in response before turning away and swimming skyward. His “conversations” with the priestesses often ended up becoming rather one-sided, like that one, but they had grown used to it by now. They usually assumed that he was either a man of few words or simply preferred not to speak when meditating. He never tried to tell them otherwise.

After she was out of his sight, he tilted his head at the rays of sun and frowned. How long had he been down here? Time was hard to keep track of at the bottom of the lake, especially since he couldn’t bring one of his clocks of any sort down here. He wasn’t sure what water would do to the contraptions, but after it had turned his copper bracelets and fin rings a speckled green, he didn’t want to find out. The result couldn’t be good.

He wasn’t certain, but he estimated that he’d been under the lake long enough that his companion would grow concerned, as usual. Sometimes Tali seemed to forget that zoras could breathe underwater. Still, he wouldn’t want to keep his friend waiting, so he gingerly unfolded his legs from their crossed position, stretched, and began swimming upwards. The water shifted from bone-chilling cold to a more refreshing cool the closer he got to the top.

When he broke the surface, he had to blink rapidly to adjust to being out of the water. Zoras were built to live beneath the waves, so coming back to the land always left his vision a bit fuzzy, not to mention their voices didn’t carry nearly as well over air as they did underwater. Not that it impacted him personally, but it was worth noting.

It took him a moment to realize he’d become turned around when swimming to the surface. He’d expected to see the humble house that he and Tali lived in before him, but instead he faced the mysterious spring of the light spirit Lanayru, with the Oocca Spire on his left. Ever since the pillar of rock had fallen from the City in the Sky, he’d been able to use it as a landmark to gauge where he was in the lake, and it proved useful time and time again. He quickly turned around so that the spire was on his right, and smiled when he saw his familiar wooden house. Eager to get back home, he began swimming towards the shore with all of the impressive speed of your usual zora.

To his surprise, Tali was waiting for him, leaning on the doorframe. His roommate was almost always off on a job or working on one of his projects inside, so he couldn’t help but be slightly concerned at the fact that he was outside. Tali rarely just hung around outdoors due to all of the strange looks people cast his way. Most were still getting used to the bird people that had descended from the heavens just over a decade ago. If anything, they’d been expecting a flock of tiny oocca to arrive on Hyrule’s surface after their sky city began to crumble. Nobody had foreseen the almost gerudo sized avians that now referred to themselves as “rito”. Supposedly, they had evolved from the previous inhabitants of the sky, but almost everyone was naturally suspicious of them.

Tali seemed unfazed by the glances that the nearby fishermen kept sneaking in when they thought he wasn’t looking. Instead of acknowledging them, he raised a wing and waved at the zora who had just emerged from the lake. “C’mon, Mikau!” He yelled, sounding a little impatient. “I’ve got someone for you to meet!”

Mikau paused for a moment in surprise, before realizing that it was the exact opposite of what his companion had been looking for and quickly broke into a sprint. The dry air felt unreasonably cold against his wet scales, but he didn’t mind it near as much as the grass that stubbornly glued itself to his feet. He was tempted to stop of brush it off, but Tali was still waiting for him, so he decided to deal with it later. 

He skidded to a stop once he reached the front door, nearly slamming into Tali. “Careful!” The rito warned, backing away. Mikau was about to mumble a quick apology and reach over his friend for the series of hooks by the door, but Tali was two steps ahead of him. His taller companion pulled the drab brown scarf off of a hook and tossed it to Mikau, who smiled gratefully and wrapped it around his neck. It wasn’t particularly practical, especially for a wet zora, but he wore it almost everywhere out of the water. He just liked the look of it.

He was about to thank his friend when a strange _tap-tap-tap_ caught his attention. Expecting it to be a beetle crawling over some of Tali’s mechanical odds and ends, he turned his head and almost reeled back in surprise. There was someone sitting at the table. Oh, of course; they must have been who he was supposed to meet. He had a short attention span, so he’d already managed to forget about him. Or, her, as it turned out.

The unfamiliar guest smiled and brought her hands together to keep herself from drumming them against the table even more. Mikau took a moment to survey her appearance. His first instinct was to assume she was a sheikah, due to her crimson irises, eye-shaped tattoos, and what looked to be genuine stealth armor, but her hair was far too golden to be natural. White streaks ran through her shining locks, almost as if she was aging, but she couldn’t have been older than eighteen. Perhaps she was only half sheikah? She also wore a cloak over her armor, which seemed to be an odd choice. The inside was lined in fur, suggesting it was meant to keep one warm rather than protect their identity.

She took a moment to observe Mikau for herself - green scales, cream underbelly, old copper jewelry and ragged brown scarf - before suddenly jolting back. “Oh, my apologies!” She said quickly in an accent that he couldn’t quite place. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. I am Sikhe of the sheikah. If I’m not mistaken, you are Tali’s friend Mikau, correct?”

Mikau hesitated for only a moment before nodding. He’d still been trying to take in her appearance, but now that they were in a conversation of sorts it would be rude to not look at her directly. 

An awkward silence followed. Sikhe watched him quietly, almost as if she was waiting for him to respond. Oh, wait, she was. He always forgot about the most awkward part of meeting new people: when they expected him to speak for the first time. Unsure of whether or not the stranger understood sign language, he turned to Tali for help. 

Realizing what both of them were waiting on a moment late, Tali barked out a laugh. “Oh, right!” He managed, looking back at Sikhe. “Forgot to tell you: Mikau doesn’t really talk much. You don’t happen to know sign language, do you?” Slightly confused, she shook her head. The rito sighed, but smiled anyway. “Figured as much. Most people don’t, anyway. Not that big of a deal since I can translate for him. It’d sure be nice, though.” He crossed his arms and turned towards Mikau. “Anyways, Sikhe here was wondering if she could stay here for a couple of nights.”

Mikau barely hesitated before nodding enthusiastically. _'She can stay in my room, if she wants,'_ he signed. _'I can take a chair or your workbench.'_

Tali blinked. “Okay, first of all, you are not sleeping on my bench,” he said, unfolding his arms and facing a palm towards the bench for emphasis. “Second, wow, you didn’t even ask what she was here for, or why we were taking her in.”

The zora paused. His friend had a point; he really should be more questioning of things. He turned his head to look back at Sikhe again, trying to gauge how suspicious she was. Seeing a sheikah so far away from the castle was suspicious in itself, but her choosing to come here instead of finding an inn was also curious. However, she didn’t seem all that dangerous to him, and the look of wonder on her face once she’d seen Mikau sign seemed far too genuine for her to be tricking them. Deciding that he wasn’t about to kick her out now, he looked back at Tali and shrugged.

Sighing, his companion rubbed the bridge of his beak. “How could I forget,” he said dryly, “that you are a complete bleeding heart.” Shaking his head, he let his wings fall limply back to his sides and turned towards the sheikah. “Guess that settles it,” he decided. “You can stay. Mikau says you can have his room while you’re here.”

Sikhe visibly brightened. “Thank you!” She beamed, trying to look at both of them at once. It wasn’t working. Mikau almost laughed at her constantly shifting her gaze between the two of them. 

Eager to help their new guest, he leaned back to try and look under the table, but found nothing there. Confused, he straightened up and furrowed his brow. _'Bags?'_ he signed, searching for her luggage to help her carry it into his room.

“She doesn’t have any,” Tali answered for him. “No luggage, that is.” Even more confused, he looked towards the guest, but she just shrugged. Tali cleared his throat. “Anyways, I’ve got someone expecting me to come to castle town any minute now to fix one thing or another, so I’ll see you guys later.” He gave them a brisk wave before turning around, walking outside, and closing the door, leaving the silent zora and strange sheikah alone together.

After watching his friend leave with so little warning, he rotated to fully face the newcomer and smiled. _'It’s nice to meet you,'_ he offered, twisting his hands around in a half circle to form the signs.

Sikhe smiled apologetically. “I have no idea what you just said,” she admitted.

Grinning, Mikau began walking to the left side of the central room before pausing in front of a doorway. Since signs clearly wouldn’t work, he tried pointing at her and then at the room to indicate that it was for her. She tilted her head in curiosity, but seemed to catch on fairly quickly and stood up. “I’m guessing that room is where I’m staying?” She ventured. He nodded.

Sikhe smiled as well and began making her way towards the door, but stopped when she reached it, standing on the side opposite Mikau. “While I’m here, do you think you could try teaching me some of your signs? I think it would be nice for us the be able to communicate without a translator, and I’m sure it will prove useful to me in the future.”

Slightly surprised, it took a moment for him to nod in response. No one else besides Tali had even attempted to learn sign language for him. He thought it was rather sweet, even though it came from an almost complete stranger. Based on her facial expression, she seemed satisfied with his response, so he stepped away from the door and motioned for her to go inside. _'You can get yourself situated while I grab lunch.'_

She just stared back at him blankly. “... alright,” she decided after a beat passed, clearly having no idea what he just said. Amused, the zora turned away and left her to settle in alone.


	2. Sikhe

_I am Sikhe of the Sheikah tribe. I am a traveler from the Peak Province._

Sikhe was lying on her back, holding up a green rupee and watching as the sunlight streaming through the window reflected against the gem. A beam of emerald light shone on the wall of Mikau’s room, and when she spun the currency, it would bounce around. Bored, she twisted the rupee back and forth in her hand to bring the circle of green light over different objects in the room.

_I cannot tell you why, but I require a place to stay for a couple of nights. If you will take me in, I will pay you handsomely._

Sighing, she let her arm fall limply on top of her stomach. The rupee slid out of her palm and rolled towards the side of the bed. After teetering precariously on the edge for a moment, the gem finally fell into the gap between the bed and the wall. She made no effort to go after it.

_I am Sikhe of the Sheikah tribe. I am a traveler from the Peak Province. I cannot tell you why, but I require a place to stay for a couple of nights. If you will take me in, I will pay you handsomely._

The words she’d used to greet Tali yesterday circled around in her head. They hadn’t all been complete lies, but they were certainly far from the whole truth. Luckily for her, the crimson rito had learned fairly quickly that she didn’t want to answer questions about herself, and his zora friend hadn’t even tried to ask. Well, he might have, but she couldn’t understand him if he did. She’d never seen someone use hand signals as their primary form of communication, and she didn’t comprehend them in the slightest.

Sikhe yawned and tried to stretch on the bed that was temporarily hers, but her heels struck the footboard as she did. It was a relatively small bed, which she’d learned the hard way after accidentally rolling off of its side and onto the wooden floor last night, but she was still able to sleep comfortably. Now that she was fully awake, she couldn’t help but wonder how Mikau slept in this thing; the zora was a full head taller than her. Maybe that was why he’d been so eager to give it away.

Slowly, she sat up and flung her legs over the side of the bed, her covered feet silently hitting the floor. She’d slept in her full stealth armor, which was only mildly uncomfortable, but it did remind her of how nice it would be to have alternate outfits. Now she could see why the zora was so confused when he’d realized she didn’t have any luggage. She’d been in a bit of a rush when she left her home and set off for Lake Hylia, so packing bags had been the least of her worries. Maybe she could visit a market and buy new outfits while she was here.

After taking a moment to comb through her hair with her fingers, Sikhe pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the wall to her left, where an oval mirror hung amidst a collection of trinkets, various sketches and drawings, and broken pieces of metal. A mirror didn’t seem entirely practical for a zora who didn’t have any hair or clothing to worry about, but he clearly liked it, as it was kept in good condition. Staring at her reflection, the sheikah smoothed the wrinkles out of her outfit and began properly fixing her hair. She tied a large loop on each side of her face with ribbons, and bunched the rest of her tresses into a tight bun. 

Her routine was interrupted by a knock on her door. “Come in!” She called, turning to the right to face the door as she finished tying off her bun.

The wooden door creaked open to reveal Tali standing on the other side. At least, it revealed most of him; Sikhe had to suppress her laughter at the fact that the doorframe was short enough to cover half of his face. The rito was even taller than Mikau, making the guest feel a little small. Noticing the inconvenience, Tali leaned sideways so that his head was positioned under the top of the frame.

“Mikau’s got breakfast cooking outside,” he said in his surprisingly deep voice. “I’ve got to go fix something up Zora’s River, so if you need anything just ask Mikau. I know you can’t understand him, so just... I dunno, try your best.” He shrugged helplessly before retreating from the tight opening and closing the door behind him.

After he left, Sikhe proceeded with her usual morning stretches before finally exiting Mikau’s room, making sure to grab her sword on the way out and strap it to her belt. The main area that she stepped into was the only other room in the house, unless you counted the upstairs loft that Tali slept in. To her left, she could see a table and workbench littered with mechanical odds and ends, as well as various blueprints. Directly in front of her was the small table with two chairs and a window behind it, and to her right was the door out. There were various things hanging on the walls, filling up the meager space within the house. Careful not to bump into the wall and knock down an already cracked photo, she cautiously made her way to the front door and stepped outside.

As expected, she found Mikau outside, tending to a fire with fish grilling over it. When he saw her come out of the house, he smiled and waved before pulling the fish down from where they were cooking. He quickly set one on a plate and offered it to her. “Thank you,” she said as she took the plate and sat down on the opposite side of the fire. He handed over some silverware as well, which she accepted gratefully.

The two ate in silence. Mikau finished first, and quickly cleaned up after himself before he tried to smother the remains of the fire with dirt. Sikhe finished her meal soon after. The zora held a hand out to her, as if asking for her plate, and she handed it over. He disappeared into the house with it and reappeared a few seconds later, her dishes gone.

This time, he sat down on the grass next to her, and watched her almost expectantly. He certainly wasn’t about to start a conversation, so maybe he was waiting on her to say something. She frowned and looked off to the side, trying to think of something to comment on.

A strange stone gate on the opposite side of the lake caught her attention. “Is that the spring of the spirit Lanayru?” She asked, pointing at it and turning to face Mikau. He leaned to the side to see past her before nodding. She looked back at the mysterious gateway. “How long does it take to walk around the lake? I would like to visit the spring.”

Waiting for an answer, she turned around to face Mikau, before remembering that she would be waiting for a very long time. “My apologies,” she said, dipping her head. “I forgot that I cannot understand you.”

The zora simply responded with an amused smile before standing up, unwrapping his scarf and dropping it onto the floor as he did so. Without even attempting to sign to her, he walked right past Sikhe and began wading into the lake. She watched him in confused silence. When the water was up to his stomach, he turned around and waved for her to follow. She continued watching him blankly, unsure of what he was trying to do. Seeing this, he rolled his eyes and made a much more dramatic motion, like he was pulling her towards him.

Somewhat intrigued, Sikhe stood up. “I think you should know that I’m not a particularly strong swimmer,” she warned as she began walking towards the lake. “Perhaps it would be better if we just walked around the shore. I’m sure it wouldn’t take much longer.” She hesitated for a moment when she reached the water, dipping a toe in apprehensively. It wasn’t too cold, so she continued walking in until she was beside Mikau. It became much colder the farther she went, and the water was almost to her shoulders.

“Alright,” she said with a slight shudder, folding her arms across her chest. “What now?”

Mikau smiled, pleased that she asked, before turning around and pointing to his back from over his shoulders. A moment passed. When Sikhe didn’t do or say anything, he looked over his shoulder to make sure she was still there. She was, and she continued to stare at him in confusion. Trying to make his point clear, he turned slightly so that he could point at her, and then pointed at his back again.

Bewildered, she tilted her head in thought. “You want me... to get on your back?” She inquired, raising an eyebrow. He nodded. Still curious as to where this was going, she let out a bemused sigh before walking closer to him and reluctantly grabbing his shoulders. “I am honestly not sure how this is going to-”

Before she even had the chance to finish, Mikau suddenly dove forward, bringing Sikhe crashing forward into his back. Without missing a beat, he began swimming at incredible speeds, forcing her to hold on tighter. “What the- hey! I told you I can’t swim, why are you bringing me out-”

She cut herself off when she realized what was going on. There was no need for her to swim, since he was just giving her a ride. A little ashamed of her outburst, she looked off to the side, trying to avoid the entertained grin Mikau was giving her from over his shoulder. “... sorry,” she managed, still not meeting his eyes.

Aside from the sudden start, the ride went relatively peacefully, not to mention quickly. Sikhe knew that zoras were said to be the strongest swimmers in all of Hyrule, but this admittedly was not what she had in mind when she thought of them. She imagined them swimming up waterfalls, not toting passengers across lakes at record speeds.

Soon enough, they reached a wooden dock in front of the entrance to the spring, and Mikau stopped. He reached up and grabbed the edge, but didn’t try to pull both of them up. Instead, he gingerly grabbed Sikhe’s right hand and guided it to the edge of the wood, not letting go until she had a firm grip on the pier. Once she had a secure hold, he brushed her left hand off of his shoulder, grabbed the dock with both of his hands, and pulled himself up. He then turned around and extended his left hand towards her. She grabbed it with her free hand, and he pulled her up onto the creaky dock as well.

“Thank you,” she said quickly. He only responded with a smile before motioning towards the crumbling stone gate. She nodded and began walking in, but stopped when she didn’t hear Mikau’s footsteps behind her. Curious, she turned around. “Are you not coming?” She inquired.

For a moment, he wavered, before signing something that she didn’t understand. After seeing her bemused look, he just shook his head. She frowned. “Oh. Alright, I’ll just be a moment, then.” He smiled, and she turned away and walked into the spring.

Despite being the home of a light spirit, the spring was remarkably dark. Strange carvings that were crumbled beyond recognition flanked the doors, and a stone outcropping jutted out from the cliff she stood on and extended towards the center of the spring. Sikhe took a few seconds to simply admire her surroundings. This spring was wildly different from the home of the spirit Eldin, which was the only other light spirit spring she had visited. The only similarities she could see between the two were the water features and the lack of the spirits that supposedly lived here.

Even if she couldn’t see the beings, she imagined that they were still there. Sometimes the great fairies were invisible as first, so why not the spirits? Smiling to herself at this thought, she began walking forward until she stood at the edge of the stone outcropping. Careful not to fall off into the waters below, she got down on her knees and began to pray.

* * *

Mikau waited outside of the spring for what felt like a ridiculously long time. When Sikhe had requested to visit the spring, he’d assumed that she merely wanted to see the fabled landmark with her own eyes. Apparently, he’d been wrong. No one took this long to just look at a pool of water.

He would have gone in with her to see what she was doing, but the spring made him feel uneasy. He’d never even been inside the spring before, and yet he somehow knew exactly what it looked like: behemoth roots reaching from the ceiling down into the clear waters below, with stone snakes standing guard on either side of the entrance. The spring was just one of many locations that he’d seen in his dreams, yet never actually visited. Tali said that prophecies sometimes came in the form of dreams, but if that was the future, he wanted no part of it. The strange creatures that haunted his nightmares scared him enough with them not even being real.

Staring at the decrepit entrance, Mikau rubbed his forehead. Being near this spring always gave him headaches, for some reason. Deep inside, he actually did want to go inside the shrine and see it when he was awake, but he couldn’t imagine what kind of migraine that would spark. It was almost as if the spirits didn’t want him near their home.

Luckily, he didn’t have to suffer any longer. Sikhe finally came out of the spring, her clothes dripping wet. He wasn’t sure if she’d actually jumped into the spring or if it was just from the ride over. Based on her earlier comments about her aversion to swimming, it was probably the latter.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” she said to him, subconsciously resting a hand on her sword’s hilt. “Would you be willing to give me a ride back, or should I just walk?”

Mikau grinned. _'I could just teach you how to swim,'_ he offered, even though he knew she couldn’t understand him.

Clueless, she smiled weakly. “Is that a yes?” She asked, raising her eyebrows.

Deciding that swimming lessons could come later, he just nodded. He motioned for her to follow him before diving into the water. She hesitated for only a moment before jumping in after him, entering the water with a less than graceful cannonball. Almost immediately afterward, she re-emerged, flapping her arms wildly to keep afloat. Mikau grabbed her right wrist just in time to keep from getting slapped in the face.

“S-Sorry!” She managed to say, struggling to keep her mouth above the water. He pulled on her wrist so that she was closer to him, and she took the opportunity to grab his shoulders so that she didn’t have to keep flailing. After a moment of adjusting and actually making sure she was secure this time, Mikau took off, headed back for his home.


	3. Of Shadows and Nightmares

The wind whipped Tali’s face as he soared over Zora River. Clutched in his talons was a rolled up parchment, alongside a small pouch of rupees. He should have received more payment than he did for his work on the Rapids Ride, which fixed the mechanism that lowered canoes into the water, but he’d accepted the parchment as part of his payment. The young zora woman who currently ran the attraction knew him fairly well, after he’d installed every mechanical asset in her shop once she’d inherited it, so she knew of his love for engineering and tinkering. She’d given him a design for what was supposedly an ancient zora invention, thinking that he might be able to recreate or even tweak it a little. He planned to do exactly that.

As he glided over the raging river, Tali happened to look down just in time to see a hylian boy in a canoe speeding down the rapids. He was a customer that had been waiting for the ride to be fixed while Tali was there. When he noticed the rito’s shadow above him, he looked up and waved. Tali just smiled back, knowing from experience that he couldn’t easily wave and fly at the same time.

Soon, the hylian was out of his sight, and he returned his focus to avoiding the stalactites that hung down from the roof like petrified icicles. It was fairly easy, but every now and then a bold kargarok would bump into him and throw him slightly off course. He tried ignoring the birds of prey to the best of his ability. Some may have tried to kill the creatures just to keep them out of the way, but he thought it would be rather brutish of him to attack his fellow avians for such a petty reason.

Near the end of his journey, Tali had to dive dangerously close to the rapids to slip under a low rock formation. Old and rotted planks of wood hung from the crag, perhaps remnants of a structure that had deteriorated long ago. He emerged from under the hanging stone and was greeted with an almost blinding light, signaling that the cave’s entrance was directly in front of him. Squinting, he continued flying towards it, hoping that he didn’t bump into some unseen cliff while soaring with his eyes practically closed.

Tali didn’t fully open his eyes until a few seconds later, when he was out of the cave and gliding over Lake Hylia’s sparkling waters. The reflection of his bright red feathers stood out against the blue and green hues of the waves below him. Up ahead, he could see Lanayru Spring to the left, the Oocca Spire in front of him, and a couple of houses spread out on the shore to the right. The lake used to be a far more popular and high-end housing spot, but ever since the spire had fallen off of the City in the Sky, residents fled out of fear that the rest of the island would soon follow. So far, the only piece of the city that had crashed into Hyrule was the spire itself, which stuck out of the waters like a spine on a cactus. Still, the common theory was that it was only a matter of time before the home of the oocca crushed the rest of Lake Hylia, and thus it became a location full of those too poor to move elsewhere.

It probably came as no surprise, then, that it was the place an orphaned rito engineer and an abandoned zora fisherman called home. Tali smiled slightly when he saw the house that he and Mikau had shared ever since they were barely old enough to remember. It had once belonged to a crotchety old hylian who’d begrudgingly adopted the two children, or at least let them stay at his house, but his old age finally caught up with him, and he died in his sleep. The two kids he’d left behind inherited what meager belongings he’d possessed and tried to make a living on their own. Those times certainly weren’t the best in their memories, but if nothing else it taught them how to survive, and gave them each other.

As he came closer, Tali could see that Mikau and their new tenant were sitting outside, drying off in the sun. Maybe they’d decided to take a swim while he was gone. They sat cross legged, facing each other, and Mikau kept signing something repeatedly. When Tali landed, he could see that the zora was saying his name.

The sound of the rito’s talons crunching the grass below caused Sikhe to whip her head around in surprise, tensing up. “Relax,” he said nonchalantly, raising a wing in surrender. “Just me.” As he spoke, he leaned down and picked up the money and parchment he’d been holding for the entire flight.

It took her a moment to decide that he wasn’t an enemy, and her shoulders slackened. “My apologies,” she said as she leaned away to try and look up at his face. “Old habit.”

“No worries,” he replied with an only slightly nervous chuckle. What kind of life did she grow up in where her first instinct was to attack? The sheikah may have been a lot more hardcore than he’d originally assumed. Giving her and Mikau a wide berth, he walked around them in an arc to reach the front door and go into his house.

Once inside, he tossed the pouch of money onto the growing stack of payments he’d received over the past week. It was a haphazard pile crammed in the corner between his workbench and the wall, but he cleared it out every now and then and sorted the rupees into more organized jars. He then walked over to his desk and unrolled the parchment, placing bits of metal that served as paperweights on each corner to keep it flat. Now that he looked at it, the contraption did appear to be an interesting idea, but he would need to stop by the Lakeside Market to get more parts for it. He already had a job to do this afternoon, so maybe he could go tomorrow.

Tali still had some time before he had to leave again, so he decided to go back outside and see what his two housemates were up to. When he walked out of his house, he could see that they were still sitting across from each other, but Mikau was signing something different this time. Since the zora’s back was to him, he had to walk around until he was perpendicular to the two of them before he could tell what he was saying. _'Friend.'_

“What are you doing?” He asked, watching as Mikau repeated the sign over and over.

Sikhe looked up at him again, but wasn’t surprised by his presence this time. “Mikau’s trying to teach me some of his signs,” she explained. 

“Gotcha.” He watched in silence as she turned back towards Mikau and repeated the sign for him. She seemed to be doing it correctly, so both boys nodded in approval.

Proud of herself, she beamed. “Alright, so that’s Sikhe, Tali, Mikau, friend... oh! There was something you were trying to tell me earlier, correct? Since Tali’s here, you could have him translate for you.”

Mikau tilted his head, trying to remember what she was talking about, before perking up when it clicked. For a second or two, he hesitated before shrugging. _'It’s not that important,'_ he explained, turning slightly towards Tali. _'I was just telling her that she looked familiar to me, but I can’t think of why.'_

Curious, Tali frowned and looked over at Sikhe. She had a fairly circular face, with slightly pointed eyes and a round nose. Her cute features clashed strangely with her ninja marks and attire. The sheikah eye was emblazoned on her forehead in blood red, and she had two triangles under each crimson eye of the same hue. He wasn’t sure if they were tattoos or something less permanent, since it looked like the top half of her face hadn’t quite become wet to potentially wash them away. Her hair, which was currently tied up, was dominantly golden, with glowing white streaks running through it. For a sheikah, her skin was surprisingly pale. In fact, it almost looked slightly sunburnt, possibly from whenever she and Mikau had been in the water.

Now that he thought of it, she did remind Tali of someone. He hadn’t realized it before since he’d been so distracted by her tattoos and stealth armor. The problem was, he couldn’t think of where he’d seen her, either. He rubbed his chin in thought. “Maybe she just looks like one of your sketches,” he offered, puzzled.

Mikau brightened. Without warning, he jumped to his feet and ran inside, presumably going to his room to assess his drawings. Sikhe watched him in confused silence. “What sketches?” She asked, turning back to Tali. “You mean the drawings hanging all over his room?”

Tali nodded. “Those are the ones.” For a moment, he paused, debating on whether or not to explain further. The sheikah was very suspicious to him, but at the same time, he couldn’t immediately think of the potential harm in telling her. “You see, he gets these dreams, sometimes,” he began. “Often, he’ll get the same ones over and over, and he’ll start to remember things from them more clearly. Some of the dreams are really good, and some of them are really bad; there’s hardly any in between. All of the things you’ll find hanging in his room, aside from his fishing supplies, are things that remind him of the good dreams. The sketches are of people he sees repeatedly.”

When he finished, Sikhe stared at him in silence. “That’s... odd,” she finally conceded. “Do you think they mean anything?”

Tali sighed and crossed his arms. “You tell me; I’m no dream expert.”

Suddenly, the two heard a loud _CRASH_ from inside the house, like glass shattering. Sikhe jumped to her feet, but Tali was quicker, already sprinting for the door. He was barely able to make the turn into Mikau’s room, almost careening into the table. By the time Sikhe made it inside the house, Tali had nearly torn Mikau’s door off its hinges trying to open it. 

For a moment, Tali froze in the doorway, confused. He’d been expecting to see blood and shattered glass. Instead, he found Mikau, curled up against the left wall and whimpering. On the ground in front of him was his mirror, splintered into pieces. To Tali’s relief, none of the shards were stained sanguine. Careful not to step on the glass, he squatted down to try and get a closer look at his friend.

“Hey...” Gingerly, he offered a hand to the shivering zora. Mikau peeked out from where his arms were wrapped around his head, his eyes watery. Tali tried to smile. “You alright?”

Mikau blinked a couple of times, watching, before slowly nodding. He cautiously unraveled his arms and wiped a tear from his cheek, but made no attempt to stand up. After sitting still for a moment, he managed to crawl over to Tali and then collapse into his side, grabbing his wing. He was sobbing. Unsure of what else he could do, Tali wrapped his other wing around his friend and pulled him into a hug.

Awkwardly, Sikhe hovered by the door, watching quietly. She wasn’t sure what just happened, and she was even less sure of whether or not she could do something about it. Her eyes drifted down to the shattered mirror. Mikau had probably bumped into the wall when trying to get one of his sketches and accidentally knocked it down. Something about it breaking had made him react like this, it seemed, but she couldn’t imagine why.

After a few moments of tense silence, save for the sounds of Mikau’s crying, the zora finally pulled away from Tali and wiped away his tears with his arm. He blinked his large blue eyes, his gaze switching between the two people in front of him, and he managed a wavering smile. They both smiled back. Suddenly remembering, he looked down at the floor and grabbed a paper that had fallen near him. It was one of his sketches. He considered it for a moment before handing it to Tali.

It took Tali a moment to remember why Mikau had gone to his room in the first place. “Is this the one?” He asked, watching his friend carefully. The zora nodded and backed away, freeing him to get up. Tali did so, peering down at the drawing. It really did look like Sikhe. The girl in the sketch was younger and her face was rounder, but the two could have easily been sisters. One thing he noticed was that the drawing didn’t appear to be a sheikah; it was some sort of human, to be sure, but she lacked tattoos or ninja attire of any sort. Instead, she wore a dress and had delicate looking pins in her hair. Although she was by no means dressed for adventure, she held a shield in her arms.

He handed the drawing over to Sikhe, who appeared surprised. “You recognize her?” He asked as she carefully took the parchment.

She stared at it for a few seconds. Tali thought that for a moment he could see recognition flash in her eyes, immediately followed by confusion. She looked down at Mikau, possibly wondering how this girl had appeared in his dreams. “Yes, I recognize her,” she confirmed after a moment’s consideration. “More or less. I’ve never met her. She...” Sikhe hesitated, like she was considering what to say. “She’s been dead for centuries. There’s pictures of her in... in history books. No one remembers her name.”

Intrigued, Tali continued watching Sikhe. Something about the way she explained it seemed... off. It was almost like she was hiding something. He couldn’t imagine why, though, and it bothered him. He liked to know all the facts. However, he’d learned yesterday that Sikhe wasn’t exactly big on spilling her secrets. She didn’t seem hostile, but she certainly had her share of mysteries. For now, he’d let her get away with it, but if she ever threatened him or Mikau... hopefully it would never come to that. For her sake, of course.

Something tapped Tali’s ankle, causing him to look down. It was Mikau. Now that he was looking at him, the zora began signing something. _'I think... I think I might know her name. Or I did... I did.'_

Tali frowned. “You knew her? The girl from centuries ago?”

_'I... I don’t know...'_ Mikau shook his head, frustrated, and looked at the floor. _'I can’t remember! Why can’t I... remember? Why do I know her?!'_

Concerned for his friend, Tali looked behind himself at Sikhe. She looked just as confused and helpless. Sighing, he turned back to Mikau and got down on his knees to be closer to his height. “Hey. Look at me.” Reluctantly, Mikau tilted his head up to look at him. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure out why you know her soon, I promise. Got it?”

Haltingly, he nodded, clearly on the verge of tears again. _'But why...'_ He wiped his eyes again. _'Why can’t I remember her?'_

Tali just shook his head. “I...” He sighed. “I don’t know, Mikau. I don’t know.”

* * *

A dense fog hung over Hyrule Castle. A young gerudo sat on the steps by the front door, plucking a lute. The familiar notes carried far, but nothing happened. They echoed over the stone walls and into the empty skies above.

The familiar _pitter-patter_ of footsteps caused him to turn his head to look behind him. It was a sheikah, with their familiar stealth armor, moon white hair, and blood red eyes. He recognized this one as Paro, even though the lower half of his face was obscured by his scarf. He paused beside the gerudo. “Anvu, is it?” He asked, his voice muffled. The bard didn’t reply, so he continued. “Care for some company?”

“Go right ahead,” Anvu replied, looking back at his instrument. As Paro sat down, he began playing the opening notes of one of his favorite songs. D, E-F-G, higher C and D... He smiled ever so slightly at the tune one of his closest friends had taught him. 

Paro smiled as well. “Did the princess teach you that one?” He asked, sounding curious. Anvu couldn’t tell if he actually was or not, as he was beginning to suspect that this was the beginning of a conversation that he’d had with other sheikah at least three times.

He continued playing the ballad. “Yes,” He said, his voice barely audible over the music.

The two listened without speaking for a bit. The royal guard leaned back on his hands, humming along to the lower notes that he could reach. As the time stretched on, Anvu began to wonder if he’d misread the entire meaning of this visit. He didn’t know Paro very well, so he couldn’t say for certain whose side he was on. Honestly, having an actual conversation with someone would be a refreshing change to the setups he’d participated in over the past couple of days. Just as he was beginning to grow comfortable around his audience of one, the sheikah sighed and began to speak again.

“You know, as cheesy as this might sound, I miss her already,” he lied. Anvu knew it was a lie. “The princess, I mean. Goddesses, I hope she’s alright... can’t imagine why she ran away...” He looked off to the side. “I’m sorry. If you don’t want me talking about her, I can-”

“It’s alright,” Anvu interjected, stopping his music for a moment. He continued to stare at his lute. “I don’t mind.”

Paro smiled. “Yeah...” He twirled the edge of his scarf around his finger and looked at the old stone steps as Anvu began playing again. “I’m just concerned... about everything. None of the scouts have reported seeing even a single sign of her.” A beat passed. He turned his head slightly towards Anvu, trying to look him in the eye, but a large clump of his red hair blocked the right half of his face. “Say... I know we don’t talk much, but you’re pretty close to Princess Zelda, yeah?” 

The gerudo didn’t respond. He instead was focused on the sound of even more footsteps, rapidly approaching from behind the two. To try and hide them from his temporary companion, he began playing slightly louder. Paro didn’t seem to notice.

“Forgive me for asking, but...” He looked up at the bard. “Before she left, did she happen to tell you where she was-”

Anvu quickly turned his head away just before the second stranger reached the two. Paro’s words suddenly cut off and were replaced by a strange, alien noise. A blue glow filled the area for half a second before fading away. Anvu stopped playing his lute, and silence fell. He took a few shaky breaths before he dared to look up.

Paro was gone. The only thing that remained where he once sat were a couple of electric blue spark-like wisps, but they soon faded away into the fog. On the very top step stood a new figure, their form obscured by both their cloak and the gloom. The only part of them that was visible was their right hand, which gripped a strange, glowing blue dagger. Still, Anvu knew exactly who it was.

The dark assassin lowered their right arm until the dagger was close enough to Anvu for him to hear its quiet crackle. He knew that he wouldn’t meet the same fate as Paro by that weapon, but he still feared it. Vanishing in a flash of pure energy was not the way he wanted to die. He turned his body so that he faced the looming figure, brushing his hair out of his line of sight. They stared down at him with blood red eyes.

“Is it still raining outside?” Anvu asked dryly. To a stranger, the question might have felt out of place. Although a fog had settled around the castle in the past few hours, it hadn’t actually rained in two days.

Luckily for him, the ninja was no stranger. They pushed a button on the base of the dagger, and the blue blade vanished, its spine folding back into the hilt. The deactivated weapon was spun deftly in the sheikah’s fingers before they slid it into a hidden pocket. They looked back and forth to ensure that no one was watching before pulling back the hood of their cloak, revealing their face. Dark skin, white hair, sanguine irises. Six red triangles tattooed around each eye. Impa.

“It hasn’t stopped for three moons,” the leader of the sheikah replied, confirming that she was not a traitor in disguise. She crossed her arms and looked skyward, towards the stars. “Nor has my work, it seems.”

Anvu nodded and stood up, strapping his lute to his belt. “Makes you wonder if there’s any sheikah in this castle who aren’t traitors waiting to slit our throats.” Subconsciously, he rubbed his neck. “It’d be a shame if you had to kill every last defense our castle has just to get rid of them all.”

Impa made a quiet humming noise in the back of her throat as the gerudo made his way up the steps. “If that is what it takes to ensure the royal family is safe, I will do it.”

Silence fell once again. Anvu looked down at the woman. Despite the fact that they were standing on the same surface and she was at least thirty years older than him, he was a good couple of inches taller. As a gerudo, it was normal for him to tower over others, but he always found it unnerving that he had to look down to see her full face. She was quite possibly the person that he both respected and feared the most, and while her threatening appearance certainly helped, the effect was slightly ruined when she stood in his shadow.

Sighing, he looked up at the stars as well. “Have you told the king yet?” He asked, drumming his fingers on the top of his lute as warriors often did with the hilt of their sword. It made sense, considering it was the closest thing he had to a weapon.

Impa shook her head. “While I’m sure Norian has good intentions, telling him may put him in even more danger.”

Anvu glanced at her and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she realized she’d referred to His Highness by his first name. “I see.” He looked back at the open doors to the castle, checking once again that no one was listening, before turning fully towards Impa. “So what do we do now?”

She stared at the stars for a moment longer before looking back at Anvu. “We wait.” She crossed her arms and looked back at the castle. “The traitors will make themselves known soon enough. You’ll see.”

Slowly, he turned around as well. The castle’s interior was silent. “I hope you’re right about this,” he decided, watching the empty chamber for any signs of movement.

Impa grinned and looked up at him, her blood red eyes terrifying in the fog. “When have I ever been wrong?”


	4. Lakeside Market

Sikhe woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door. Groggily, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and sat up. The sun was just barely peeking through the window to her left. “Come on in,” She said mid-yawn.

Although she didn’t look at it, she could tell that someone had opened the door based on the sounds of wood creaking. “Sorry, didn’t realize you were still asleep,” Tali’s voice said from the doorway. Without even turning her head, she could already picture him bending over sideways to fit through the frame.

“No, no, it’s alright,” she said quickly, brushing her golden hair out of her face. “I should have been up sooner. Did you need something?”

Tali hesitated. “Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to go to the Lakeside Market with me this morning, but if you just woke up-”

“I’m coming!” Suddenly in a rush, Sikhe jumped out of bed and fumbled for her sword, strapping it on haphazardly. She considered checking just how much of a mess her hair was in the mirror, but then she remembered that it was no longer there. Deciding that she looked presentable enough, she turned towards Tali and put her hands on her hips. “See? All ready to go.”

It was painfully obvious that Tali was struggling to keep himself from laughing. “Easy there, spitfire,” he chuckled. “I’m not leaving right now. Besides, don’t you think that maybe it’s not the best idea to go in public wearing full stealth armor? The sheikah aren’t exactly common around here.”

Realizing he was right, she hesitated. “They aren’t... we aren’t common anywhere, in truth. You’re right. It’d probably be safer for both of us if I didn’t come.”

He watched her in silent curiosity before smiling. “You could just wear some of my spare clothes, since you don’t have any. They’ll be huge on you, but I’ve got some belts... although your tattoos might be a problem.”

She perked up. “That won’t be an issue,” she pointed out. “They aren’t actually tattoos; I’m not allowed to get any since I’m-” She cut herself off when she realized what she almost let slip. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Since I’m just a trainee. You only get your tattoos once you’ve been officially initiated. If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I can go wash them off.”

Tali considered her for a moment, potentially catching her mistake, before sidestepping out of the way of the door. “Go right ahead,” he said, motioning for her to come on. “I’ll try to get my smallest clothes for you. Mikau’s out fishing, so if you see him when you’re washing off, tell him we’ll be leaving soon.”

Sikhe nodded and walked past him, continuing through the already open front door. When she first stepped outside, she didn’t see any signs of the zora, so she continued to the shore. The cold water felt somewhat unnerving against her socked feet. Careful not to fall forward into the lake, she squatted down and scooped some water into her hands before splashing them onto her face and rubbing. She usually had soap on the few other occasions when she’d wiped away her markings, but she suspected that any soap her hosts had was too hard to obtain for them to waste, so she didn’t ask for any.

A few seconds into her scrubbing, she happened to see something green swimming towards the coast, and she paused to get a better look. As she suspected, it was Mikau. Remembering what Tali had told her to say, she raised an arm and began waving to get his attention. He was fairly close to the shore by the time he saw her, and when he did he looked like he was going to faint. Confused, she furrowed her brow before she realized just how horrible she must look.

“It’s alright!” She yelled, lowering her hand that was covered in red liquid. “Just paint!”

Mikau paused, contemplating her words, before nodding and coming over. He was at a point shallow enough that he could just walk. Curious as to just how bad she looked, Sikhe turned towards her reflection in the lake and nearly reeled back. Streaks of dark red ran down her forehead and under her eyes, dripping from her chin and staining the water below her. She held her hands in front of her face, and just as she suspected, they were streaked with sanguine. Even from up close, it was easy to mistake her for being covered in blood. She would have laughed at the misconception if it wasn’t so morbid.

She could tell Mikau was approaching by the _squelch_ sound his webbed feet made when they stepped in the mud. When he reached her side, he kneeled but didn’t quite meet her eyes. He was probably trying his best to avoid looking at what appeared to be a gruesome scene. Amused, she grinned.

“Tali wanted you to know that we were leaving soon,” she informed him, turning back to the lake and splashing another handful of water onto her face. “I’m going with him to the market.”

From the corner of her vision, she could see him nodding, but he then tapped her shoulder to get her attention. Once she was watching him, he raised his eyebrows and signed something that he’d taught her yesterday. _'Help?'_

Sikhe looked down at her stained palms and frowned. “I could use a little help,” she admitted, letting her hands drop into the water. Mikau smiled and scooted closer so that he could reach her face and began wiping the bloody tears away. While he took care of her face, she blindly swished her hands through the water to get all of the stray paint off of them. When he was done, he shimmied backwards before nodding in satisfaction.

Sikhe smiled wryly. “Don’t celebrate yet,” she advised him. “Check your hands.”

Confused, he did so, before his eyes widened in horror. His hands were dripping with what could have easily been blood. Sikhe couldn’t help herself; she laughed. He glared at her from the corner of his eyes, but his smile told her that he wasn’t entirely serious. Still, she let her amusement fall into silence and tried to maintain a neutral expression.

“Thank you,” she said once she was done, looking back at her reflection. Her face looked spotless, devoid of any crimson streaks. She turned towards Mikau to see that he was smiling at her, apparently getting over the fact that his hands were painted red. She smiled as well. “I should probably go finish getting ready.” Cautiously, she stood up before walking back towards the house. He followed, perhaps needing to talk to Tali.

When Sikhe walked inside, the rito looked up from where he stood by his workbench and waved. “Took you long enough,” he said sarcastically. “I put the clothes in Mikau’s- er, your room.”

“Thank you.” She turned left to go into the room. Behind her, Mikau seemed to be hovering in the entrance to the house, but she didn’t see what he was doing before she closed the door. On the bed, Tali had left a red tunic, tights, boots, and a pile of belts. She changed into the new outfit as quickly as possible, but had to use the belts excessively to keep the clothes relatively her size. Priority number one at the market would be getting spare outfits.

When she came out of the room, both Mikau and Tali were in front of the desk, looking at something. The latter seemed to be explaining it to the former. Intrigued, Sikhe quietly came up behind them to see what it was. When she got closer, she could see that it was a design sketch for something that she didn’t recognize. Surrounding it were papers with rough drawings of similar contraptions. To her amusement, she could see that one of the papers had a red fingerprint on it, as if Mikau had tapped it without realizing he still had paint on his fingers.

“... a longshot,” Tali was saying, pointing to one of the smaller sketches. “But over time, they developed it into this, the clawshot.” He tapped the main parchment with a finger. “This design allowed for the user to control how much of the chain was used at a given time, instead of it all just immediately rolling back up into the cylinder. I’m planning on building one of these, since I have the complete pattern, but I also want to get enough parts to try and create a new version that can potentially grip onto even more surfaces.”

As interesting as this was, Sikhe thought that they were planning on going to the market as soon as possible, so she cleared her throat to get their attention. Both boys whipped around in surprise. “Din’s Fire, Sikhe!” Tali exclaimed. “Don’t scare us like that!”

“My apologies,” she replied. “I just thought that you would like to know I’m ready. As in, actually ready this time.”

They both took a few seconds to look over her outfit. Mikau covered his mouth with a hand to hide his laughter. She would have glared at him, but to be fair she had done the same thing to him. Tali didn’t comment on her excessive use of belts, only nodding.

“Good. If you’re up for it, we can go now.” He turned towards Mikau. “Don’t do anything stupid while we’re gone, okay?” The zora smiled sheepishly, as if the question was based on previous experience. Tali seemed to take that as an acceptable answer and walked away, brushing past Sikhe on his way out. When he was gone, Mikau waved goodbye to her. She waved back before turning and following Tali.

“Where is the market?” She asked once she’d caught up with him outside.

“Up there,” he said, pointing. 

She followed where he was indicating all the way up to the top of Lake Hylia’s crater. A frown crossed her face. Recently, excavators and engineers had carved a series of tunnels into the side of the cliff that allowed for people to move easily between the crater and the field above. The problem was, they branched off and reached other locations in Hyrule as well, so it was easy to lose your way. “Is there even a fast way to get up to that elevation that doesn’t involve getting lost in a tunnel system?”

Shrugging, Tali looked down at her. “Sure there is. I am a bird, after all.”

Sikhe crossed her arms. “Alright, allow me to rephrase that. Is there a fast way for _me_ to get up there?”

“I guess that depends.” Tali scratched his head, thinking about something. A grin began to cross his face. “Would you be up for a lift?”

Immediately, she remembered yesterday’s experience with riding across the lake. She almost groaned. “Goddesses, here we go again.”

* * *

The Lakeside Market was not exactly what Sikhe had expected it to be.

When she imagined the market, she’d envisioned some open air collection of stalls similar to Castle Town’s south road, with each merchant sitting in their own tents to keep away from the sun. In truth, the market was actually hidden in a large cavern near the entrance to Lake Hylia’s crater from Hyrule Field. Merchants resided within their own stalls, but most of them lacked roofs, since there was no risk of being burned. The entire cave was lit by bluish green luminous stones, which were hung from the ceiling by ropes and strings. Many stalls also had small bags of the glowing stones hanging from poles to illuminate their individual wares.

Upon entering the cavern, Sikhe had to stop for a moment just to take it all in. Tali watched her gaze zigzag to every detail about the area. “What, you don’t have these up in the Peaks?” He asked, although his grin suggested that he already knew the answer.

Sikhe snapped her attention back to the rito beside her. “No, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she admitted, blinking to adjust to the low light levels. “Is this type of market exclusive to Lanayru?”

He shrugged. “Eh, I guess you could say that. I’ve been to a couple of places around Hyrule, and I’ve never encountered another one like it. Seems like something the gorons would do, but I’ve never been to Death Mountain.”

Subconsciously, she twirled a strand of her tangled hair around her finger as she thought. She’d visited the Eldin Province on multiple occasions, most of them involving a trip to the mountain itself. “Almost everything the gorons do is underground, so I see your point, but markets are rarely found there,” she explained. “Their merchants tend to set up shop in existing settlements, such as Castle Town or the Village of the Blue Maiden. Gorons rarely have anything to sell that other gorons will buy other than food, making full markets less than practical.”

When she finished, she looked up at Tali to discover that he was staring at her with raised eyebrows. “Good to know,” he decided, although it sounded more like an excuse to make her stop talking.

Somewhat embarrassed about her little rant, Sikhe looked back down. Tali shrugged it off and continued. “Anyways, we’re here, so feel free to look around. If you ever need me, I’ll probably be in this section.” He gestured towards a row of stalls on the right. “It’s where you’ll find mechanical parts and designs. The rest of it... well, just explore it. You’ll figure it out.” With that, he walked away, off to find pieces for his new clawshot project.

At first, Sikhe wasn’t sure where to go first. The options were somewhat overwhelming. As she scanned the stalls for anything that caught her attention, she noticed one row seemed to be dedicated entirely to clothing, which was perfect for her. She quickly made her way over to those stalls and began buying new outfits. Multiple of the vendors noticed her odd choice of attire, and made various comments on it. One even felt bad enough for her fashion plight that she gave her a discount.

After buying a couple of spare outfits and tucking them away into her bag of holding, she began wandering through the market somewhat aimlessly. She bought a collection of luminous stones, since they intrigued her, and a bundle of peculiar mushrooms that she was pretty sure could be made into potions. No other stalls stuck out to her, but she did find the medley of different races to be interesting. Most of the vendors were hylians, zoras, or rito, the latter of which were practically exclusive to the Lanayru Province. She even saw a couple of gerudo and a goron, which struck her as a bit more out of place.

Sikhe drifted through the rows of the market for a few minutes before she finally found one stall that captured her attention. It appeared to just be a collection of trinkets, including an array of carved wolves made of various materials, handmade crowns and headdresses, and glass sculptures that reminded her of the creatures that the Light Spirits supposedly resembled. However, what really made her come over to the stall was a circular mirror made of shining black glass. Despite its dark surface, it reflected everything perfectly.

Once she’d reached the stall, she had to look up to see the vendor’s face. She was a young gerudo woman, probably only a couple of years older than Sikhe, with narrow eyes and a soft smile. While she had nothing against this woman in particular, Sikhe was growing tired of looking up at everyone, especially considering she was somewhat tall for a hylian or sheikah. “Excuse me,” she began, “how much does the mirror cost?”

The merchant looked over at the circle of black glass before turning back towards her customer. “That one is one hundred rupees,” she responded with a thick desert accent. “If that seems expensive, it is enchanted so that it does not break as easily.”

Sikhe smiled. Just her luck that she’d found the perfect mirror. Hopefully, Mikau wouldn’t mind its dark coloration. She handed two purple rupees to the merchant, who in turn took the mirror down from its stand and handed it to the sheikah. After slipping the mirror into her bag (with difficulty, as it was almost bigger than the opening), she also purchased two of the wolves, just because she liked them.

She resumed her aimless exploration of the marketplace, but only bought a bottle of spice from the goron merchant before deciding that she was done. Pleased with her purchases, she found Tali and followed him around in silence until he was done, and they both left together to return to Lake Hylia.


	5. Traitors

The doors to the throne room creaked open, allowing for two men to enter before the massive gate was once again closed. When he saw the glowing white hue of their hair, King Norian immediately sat up in his throne, a smidge of hope forming inside of him. To his right, his bard paused his song to hear what the warriors had to say.

“Have you found her?” The king asked, leaning forward slightly. “Have you found my daughter?”

The sheikah duo continued walking in silence until they were a couple of yards in front of the throne. Once they had stopped, the taller of the two cleared his throat and tugged his mask down to lay limply around his neck. “We are not sure,” he admitted, his voice steady. “However, we have narrowed down her potential whereabouts, and we have already sent Palah and Kiton to investigate the location that we believe is most likely.”

Slowly, the king moved back to sit firmly on his seat and considered the situation. He wasn’t quite disappointed, not yet. There was still a chance that she was hiding wherever the two scouts were headed. For now, he would just have to hope that they successfully found her, as there was little more help he could send out in the field. His regiment of sheikah seemed to be slowly diminishing as multiple warriors vanished without a trace. They were already an endangered tribe, with many choosing to live in Kakariko or the Village of the Blue Maiden in hopes of avoiding an early grave, but the mass disappearances at the castle threatened them now more than ever. By now, he thought that he only had six of the shadow folk left serving him.

The king rubbed his chin as he thought. “What about the disappearances? Have you found an explanation for why my soldiers are vanishing?”

The taller man in front of him shook his head. “We have not found our missing comrades yet,” he said. “Perhaps they are merely abandoning their posts.”

“But why now?” King Norian frowned at his own question. The sheikah who chose to serve the royal family were never allowed to leave the service until they died or until their leader, Impa, commanded it. It wasn’t unheard of for the warriors to fake their own deaths or run away to try and free themselves from their duties, even though they had chosen their own path in the first place, but it was rare. Yet in the past few days, five of his guards had mysteriously disappeared. He had noticed that the disappearances began around the same time that the princess had run away, so there might have been a connection.

The shorter of the two men began to look around the throne room, almost as if he was waiting for his missing comrades to magically appear from behind the pillars. Thanks to their skill in sudden teleportation, it was possible, but unlikely. The man paused when he saw Anvu, the gerudo bard who was waiting silently beside the king. After studying him for no apparent reason, he returned his attention to the man on the throne.

“Your highness, are you not guarded?” He asked, concern in his voice.

Sighing, the king shook his head. “Every day, those who are assigned to stay at my side disappear the night before or morning of their duty, or have been too afraid to come onto the castle grounds.” He considered adding that Impa could very well have been in the room herself, hiding as she liked to do, but he reasoned that the soldiers probably already knew that. It was a fairly well known fact that their leader rarely stated where she was going to be at any given time. 

There was also Anvu, but he was hardly a warrior compared to the sheikah. He’d been trained from the moment he could first use a sword, as all gerudo were, but he’d decided early on to create a different path for himself and become a musician instead. There was a good chance he had a knife hidden on him somewhere, but it wouldn’t do much against a hostile invasion. The king had to respect the fact that he was willing to stay by his side, especially when his own trained soldiers refused to do so, but it likely wouldn’t help him if the situation ever turned dire.

The men in front of the throne exchanged a glance. Norian wondered if it meant something, but he didn’t have time to ask before everything became a blur.

The taller warrior suddenly pulled out a dagger from seemingly nowhere and threw it directly towards the king’s head. Instinctively, he raised an arm to protect himself, but there was no need; the blade inexplicably froze about a foot from his face. There was no time for anyone in the room to be shocked at what had just happened, as two more sheikah suddenly jumped onto the first two, apparently having been hidden somewhere above them. He recognized one of the new arrivals as Impa herself.

What happened next, he didn’t quite see. There was a bright flash of electric blue light that temporarily blinded him, and by the time it had faded, the battle between the four ninjas was already over. Impa stood, seemingly unscathed, with a shining blue dagger held in her hand. Beside her was Inrah, one of the newly initiated members of the sheikah royal guard. They had a large gash on their left arm that was actively dripping blood onto the palace floor. At Inrah’s feet was the shorter of the original warriors, whose name Norian couldn’t remember. His throat was slit, and it was very clear that he was dead. The one who had thrown the original dagger was nowhere to be seen.

“My king, are you alright?” Impa asked, stepping over the corpse to get closer.

Carefully, Norian plucked the floating dagger out of the air where it hovered. It looked like just a normal knife. “I... yes, I’m alright,” he decided. He couldn’t decide what to say next - how long have you been up there, did you know they were traitors, where did the last one go, how was this dagger floating - so he didn’t say anything at all.

The woman seemed to guess a couple of his thoughts. “Kirah didn’t flee,” she informed him. Yes, Kirah; that was the name of the taller soldier who’d thrown the knife and was now missing. “I killed him, so you will not have to worry about that traitor any longer.”

“How long have you known he was going to betray me?” Norian asked, composing himself. “If you knew, you should have told me.”

Frowning, Impa crossed her arms under her cloak. “We didn’t know that those two specifically would betray you. Inrah, Anvu, and I have discovered that there is a plot to overthrow you, but we didn’t know who all was involved. That is why one of us has always been near you. In most cases, that someone was Anvu.”

Shocked at this news, he looked over at the bard. Was he secretly a trained assassin? He wouldn’t put it past Impa to teach him how to be one, especially after she’d given lessons to his own daughter. He knew that the musician did know some magic - perhaps enough to stop a dagger in midair, he realized - but he didn’t know how skilled he truly was. However, as long as they were on the same side, he had more pressing matters to deal with.

King Norian turned back towards the woman in the cloak. “If you knew that there were traitors in our midst, then why didn’t you tell me?” He asked firmly.

“For your safety,” she assured him. “If you’d known that something was amiss, they may have struck sooner. You’re lucky that they didn’t, because now we only had to take care of two instead of seven.”

Catching on to what he was implying, he frowned. “I don’t suppose you’ve had something to do with the disappearances, have you?” He continued, although his harsh tone suggested that he already knew the answer. “Or with my daughter supposedly running away? Because if you did, I’m sure you would have told your king so that he did not waste his time and resources searching for his missing citizens.”

Impa was not one to squirm under someone’s gaze, but she did hesitate for a moment. “As I said, it was for the safety of both of you-”

“I THOUGHT MY DAUGHTER WAS KIDNAPPED!!!” He pounded his fists on the armrests of his throne, causing Anvu to jump. “Do you know how much I’ve worried about her over these past few days? How much I wished I knew something, _anything_ about where she was? How desperate I was becoming?!”

Inrah glanced over at their leader, wondering how she would respond. She started out by rubbing the bridge of her nose. “My king,” she began, “I am sorry that I could not tell you about your daughter sooner. She is safe.” Despite trying to remain angry at Impa, Norian couldn’t contain a small sigh of relief. “We had sent her far away from the castle to stay with a couple of peasants, so that the traitors could not find her easily. Once we can locate Kiton and Palah, who we believe are the last of the defectors, we will bring her back-”

“Kiton and Palah aren’t here,” Norian interjected. “While I suppose he may have been lying, Kirah said that they had potentially found my daughter and were sent after her.”

The two sheikah before him froze. Surprise flashed across Impa’s face, while Inrah had an expression of fear. Beside him, the king could see Anvu also looked concerned, but not shocked, since he’d heard the tale for himself. He must have temporarily forgotten about that detail in the brief moment of chaos.

Quickly, Impa straightened. “We must go find them, then,” she decided briskly. Something seemed to occur to her, and she paused before adding through her teeth, “with your permission, of course.”

“Go,” King Norian said firmly. 

Impa nodded before snapping to get Anvu’s attention. “You, with me,” she instructed him. The bard looked surprised, but quickly jogged over. “Inrah, stay with the king in case they come back.”

“Yes, sir,” they replied.

When Anvu had reached her side, Impa grabbed his arm. “Hold on,” she warned him. Half a second later and the two had vanished into thin air. Often, the sheikah used deku nuts to mask their escape, so it was disconcerting to watch them disappear right before your eyes. With the two gone, the throne room fell into silence. King Norian propped his right arm on his throne and leaned on his fist, worry growing within him.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness,” Inrah assured the king, sensing his concern. “Impa is quick, but even if she doesn’t reach the princess first, your daughter is more than capable of defending herself.”

Despite their effort, their words did little to calm the king. Still, he looked down at them and managed a weak smile. “I know she is,” he said. “But it is a father’s job to worry.”

* * *

Water dripped slowly down Mikau’s back as he walked towards his house. Slung over his shoulder was an empty net and a trident that he’d used earlier for fishing. He’d managed to already sell all of today’s catches to the neighbors, who were always eager to buy what he retrieved. As long as they paid, he saw no reason to go through the extra effort of bringing his fish to a market when he could just sell them next door.

Tali didn’t like it when Mikau brought wet nets into the house, so he hung it over the back of their lone outside chair to dry before walking inside. Without even looking, he deftly snatched his brown scarf off of its hook by the door and wrapped it around his neck. He didn’t mind getting it wet, but he didn’t wear it in the lake out of fear that it would drift away. He set the trident down to lean on the wall on the opposite side of the door. Navigating around the table and its two seats, he made his way into his room, since Sikhe was still away at the market. The only sign that anyone but himself had been in the room was the set of stealth armor hanging on the edge of the bed.

He’d come in the find his flute, so that he could play it for a bit before the others came home, but now that he thought about it he had no idea where he’d left it. Crossing his arms, he looked to his right at his wall covered in his various knickknacks. He expected it to be on his cluttered nightstand, but since it clearly wasn’t there he began scanning the wall to see if it hung from any of the hooks. 

Despite his goal, his eyes lingered on the empty space where his mirror used to hang. It left an obvious bare patch on his wall, but what really got under his skin was the sight of the broken mirror. Tali has disposed of it almost immediately, but the image of it was still ingrained in Mikau’s memory: a spiderweb of cracks radiating out from the center, growing until they reached the edges of the mirror, before it finally shattered into millions of pieces that were little more than glitter on the wind.

He frowned. No, that couldn’t be right. His mirror was an oval, not a circle like the one he’d imagined, and it had shattered the moment it hit the floor. And why had he imagined it as black? He tried going back to whatever memory he was seeing, but it drifted just out of his mind, where all he could see of it was a dark circle of broken glass. Confused with his own mind, he shook his head and turned away. Thinking about his mirror, or the mirror that may have been from his dreams, wouldn’t help him find his flute.

After deciding that it was nowhere to be found on this wall, Mikau took a step back to assess the room as a whole. Perhaps he’d set it on his bed, and the flute had rolled into the space between it and the wall. He walked over to his bed and the wall with a window, and almost hit his hanging bits of glass with his head. He liked the way colored glass sparkled in the sunlight, so he had a collection of shards hanging from strings near the window, his favorite being a small purple sliver at the center of them all. Careful not to hit them, he ducked under the bits of glass and kneeled on his bed to look in the space by the wall. He didn’t see his flute, but there was a green rupee down there.

A knock on the front door almost made him leap right into his array of broken glass. Cautiously, he backed off of the bed, and realized a bit too late that his knees had left wet splotches on the bed. Hopefully they would dry by the time Sikhe came in here. Curious as to who was at the door, he made his way out of his room, closing the door behind him, and went to the entrance.

When he opened the door, he half expected to see Sikhe or Tali, but was surprised to be met with two unfamiliar faces. He quickly decided that they were both sheikah, based on their pale hair and crimson irises. Unlike Sikhe, they had darker skin and truly white hair, supporting his theory that she was half hylian. Wondering if they’d come to the right house, he smiled at them, although he did have to look down slightly to meet their eyes.

The two strangers remained silent before realizing that he wasn’t going to say anything. The young woman on the right spoke up first. “Excuse us. My name is Palah, and this is Kiton. We’re looking for a friend of ours that we believe is staying around here. Have you seen a girl, couple years younger than I am, with golden hair and red eyes?”

Mikau tilted his head. It sounded like they were talking about Sikhe, although he didn’t remember her mentioning any friends were coming to visit. Still, he dismissed that thought and nodded. At this, the male seemed to deflate slightly, for whatever reason.

Once again, the two waited for him to say something more, but were soon disappointed. Kiton addressed him this time. “Where is she?” He asked, fiddling with a ring he wore.

The zora was about to point towards the top of the crater, but he hesitated. Yet again, he found himself trusting a couple of strangers he knew nothing about. Tali would be less than pleased. Trying to be slightly more questioning, he made a sign near his head. _'Why?'_

Although the man just gave him a look of confusion, Palah recognized the sign. “We need to talk to her,” she said, earning herself a strange look from her companion. “As soon as possible.”

Mikau frowned. A rather vague answer, all things considered. Maybe he should wait for Tali to come back before he told them anything. _'I don’t know where she is,'_ he lied, _'but you can wait here for when she comes back.'_

The woman smiled slightly. “You mean to tell me she’s staying here? And she’s coming back?”

Something about her reaction set him on edge. Now that he looked at them and their different attitudes, they didn’t exactly strike him as just friends coming to visit. He nodded, but took a wary step back. Palah looked over towards her partner and grinned. Kiton sighed and looked away, as if she wanted him to do something that he would regret. A strange tickling sensation ran down the back of Mikau’s neck, like something was very, very wrong. He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like every fiber of his being was telling him he was in danger, screaming for him to do something. This wasn’t right. These people were lying, but now it was too late, and Kiton was pulling out a knife-

Mikau was no longer in control of his own body. Before he knew what was happening, he jumped back, and watched as Kiton’s dagger sliced cleanly trough thin air. Shock passed over both of their faces when he dodged the attack, but Mikau was in control again, and whatever adrenaline had just run through his body was replaced by fear. Searching for anything to defend himself with, he snatched his trident from beside the door, and pointed it at the trained warriors.

This was fine, he told himself. You’re just having another dream. He’d dreamt of fighting so much this felt more like a memory, like he knew every step his opponents would take before they even moved. He’d defeated his phantoms of the night, those beasts of the shadows and demons of swords, so he could do this too. The polearm in his hands felt inexplicably wrong, but he gripped it tighter and prepared to fight. The only thing he felt right now was fear, but fear could be used.

Mikau had never actually fought before in his life, aside from his sparring sessions with Tali, but this was just another one of his things that he couldn’t explain. The way he rolled out of the way of Palah’s stab was just like how he knew the exact layout of Lanayru Spring, or how he’d seen a thousand mirrors shatter before his own. His dreams weren’t optimistic prophecies, but in this moment they might save his life.

The ensuing battle felt more like a dance that he just had to remember the steps to. Palah swung her sword three times, but in the brief moment after her final strike he rolled past her and onto the grass outside. He tried to slash at her back, but Kiton took a stab at him, and he had to jump backwards to avoid being skewered. Luckily for him, his trident’s range was far superior to Kiton’s dagger and Palah’s short sword, but two against one was hardly a fair battle, especially when the two he fought were trained assassins. He’d just have to try and keep them at a distance.

That plan soon went out the window. Kiton disappeared into thin air, seemingly fading out of existence in half a second. Before Mikau even had time to wonder where he had gone, he reappeared above him and was slashing down with his dagger. By the time Mikau realized what was happening, his back was already split by an ugly red gash. He stumbled forward, stabbing the front of his trident into the ground to keep his balance. In front of him, Palah didn’t even try to seize the opportunity; she just stared at him and smirked, as if her victory was already assured.

He didn’t know why, but in that moment she reminded him of someone. It was likely another phantom of his memory that he’d never met, but her white hair and confident grin made him feel like he’d fought her before, perhaps in another life. Whoever she reminded him of, he hated her. Suddenly determined to wipe that grin off her face, he ripped his weapon out of the ground and staggered in place, trying to stand up.

Kiton popped into existence next to Palah, crimson blood dripping from his dagger. “Alright, get this over with,” he mumbled, turning his head away. Mikau watched in shock as the man who’d attacked him stepped back, making no other move. Instead, Palah moved forward, her short sword held firmly in her right hand. The zora clutched his trident tighter, determined not to die like this. An idea began forming at the back of his mind, but it was less of a plan and more of a memory of how these battles usually went in his dreams. He’d quickly realized this was no dream, but he had to try.

Calmly, the woman stopped a couple of feet in front of him, barely even raising her sword. Mikau deftly spun his weapon around, seemingly about to retaliate, but instead he merely rotated it so that the larger, sharper end of the weapon was on the ground, making it easier to lean on. Palah laughed at how feeble he looked, leaning on the pole as if he could collapse any second.

She took a step forward, sneering at his weakness. Wait. “You’re pathetic,” She taunted him. Wait. Kiton closed his eyes as she took two more steps, trying to give himself deniability. Wait. “Aren’t you even going to fight me?” Wait. Another step forward, until their toes were practically touching.

Now.

Without warning, Mikau suddenly swung his trident upwards, drawing a long and deep arc of blood across the warrior’s chest. Her light grey uniform soon became stained the same crimson hue of her eyes, which were now widened in shock. Like her attacker had done only moments before, she lurched backwards, but she had no pole to rest her weight on. She stared in disbelief at the zora in front of her, who now stood tall and held a trident dripping with her blood in front of him.

He didn’t know how hard he’d hit her, but it was hard enough. In her final moments, she clutched her stomach, as if she was trying to keep anything from falling out of the gaping chasm that divided her chest. “You’ll pay for this,” she hissed, beads of blood spilling from her lips. Any other words she tried to form were lost in a gurgle, just before she collapsed. Dead.

Hearing his partner’s body hit the floor made Kiton look up, and he stared in horror at the scene before him. His opponent, whom he thought should be unconscious and bleeding out right now, was standing above his fallen comrade, holding the weapon used to kill her in front of him. His eyes were filled with a determination to survive. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him on his feet right now.

A minute of silence passed as the two stared at each other in both anger and disbelief at how he had killed her by merely drawing his weapon. Desperate to avenge his friend, Kiton dropped his sanguine dagger and pulled out his eightfold blade, wordlessly challenging Mikau to a battle to the death.

Adrenaline apparently wasn’t enough. Before Mikau could even step towards his new challenger, his knees buckled and he collapsed forward, revealing his back that was now completely slick with ruby red blood. Kiton overcame his brief surprise to step forward and kick the trident out of the zora’s grip, although “grip” was now a much looser term. He was unconscious before his body hit the floor, and it would only be a matter of time before he was dead.

Sighing, Kiton sheathed his blade and looked around. No one else seemed to be out and about on the shore of Lake Hylia, so perhaps the entire spectacle had gone unseen. If he was lucky, he could drag the two soon-to-be corpses to the water and toss them in before anyone even stepped out of their houses. There was still the problem of the person he’d actually come to retrieve, especially now that his backup had been defeated by no more than a fisherman, but he was sure he could take care of her by himself. 

As he considered his options, he thought he heard a strange popping sound behind him, not unlike the sound of an untrained sheikah warping. However, before he could turn around to see who or what it was, the sickening sound of bone and flesh being skewered reached his ears. Dumbfounded, he looked down to see an eightfold blade not unlike his own protruding through his stomach like a nail from a plank. The same crimson that stained the other two bodies began dripping from the wound, and he didn’t even have time to register the pain before he slumped forward, losing consciousness.

Sikhe pulled the sword from his back with a nauseating _shhhunk_ , and his body collapsed onto the ground, just barely falling over the threshold for the doorway. Horrified at what she’d just done, she dropped her blade, the stained metal clattering harmlessly onto the wooden planks below her. In front of her, there were now three bodies of the people she knew. Kiton, an old friend of hers who’d finally popped the question to his beloved, and whom she’d just stabbed. Dead. Palah, an admittedly distant warrior who’d helped her train in the arts of sheikah combat, and who now had an arc of crimson on her chest to match her blank, lifeless eyes. Dead. Mikau, the kind fisherman who had taken her in without question, and had seemingly lost his life fighting because of her. Dead.

She wanted to scream, but sound wouldn’t come out. Her knees barely held her as she fell down, sobbing into her hands. The red paint from this morning had washed away, and while you couldn’t see it, it was now replaced by the very real blood on her hands at having killed a man. A friend. Tears ran down her palms, doing nothing to wash away the pain or the guilt. Three people were dead just because she existed in the wrong place in the wrong time.

Through her blurred vision, she could see Tali land beside his fallen friend, but his screams of anger and pain barely reached her pointed ears. His bright red feathers almost blended in with the blood that soaked everything in her vision. She could see his mouth moving as he tried to yell at his old friend, tried to will him back to life, but could not hear the words. All she could do was watch as he helplessly picked up the zora, stained red with his own blood, and hold him in his arms.

Silence. The same cold, lonely silence that dominates a graveyard settled over the two as they cried for their fallen. Sikhe slumped down, feeling as dead as the bodies that filled her vision. It was as if she were in a bubble, where words and sensations were distant memories.

Something broke through. She looked up as she heard a voice trying to speak to her, and willed herself to hear it through the pain. Tali was staring at her, a twinkle of hope in his eyes despite the tears flowing down his face. It took all of her willpower to hear what he was saying over the thundering sounds of pain and guilt in her ears.

“He’s still breathing!”

Sikhe blinked, trying to see clearly. Tali was still holding his friend, the zora’s blood dripping all over his clothes and feathers, but his earlier sorrow was replaced by tears of joy. He held onto his fragment of relief as hope began to fill him once again.

“Mikau’s stil alive!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sometimes post drawings based on this fic on my tumblr, which you can view [here](https://gleam-and-darken.tumblr.com/). Everything related to this fic is tagged “Someone Else's Destiny”.


	6. Any Other Name

_I am Sikhe of the Sheikah tribe. I am a traveler from the Peak Province. I cannot tell you why, but I require a place to stay for a couple of nights. If you will take me in, I will pay you handsomely._

It had been hours since Sikhe and Tali had come home from the market and found Mikau, bleeding in the grass. Hours since she had wordlessly warped behind her old friend and stabbed him in the back. Hours since they had brought Mikau to Lanayru Spring so that the spirit could heal him, but they could not heal the scar. Hours since they had buried the two sheikah in shallow graves. Hours since she had tried to wash the blood from her sword, yet could never unsee the crimson glint in its reflection.

It had even been hours ago that the sun had set. Mikau never woke up, at least not yet, but he was still breathing. They sat him in the chair that he had been sleeping on recently and left him, as if he was only taking a short nap. They prayed that it was the truth. While Tali had been suspicious of Sikhe from the beginning, she could now see the harsh mistrust in his eyes every time he looked at her, silently blaming her for the near death of his friend. He knew that she was more than she told him. Despite this, he still let her stay, and told her to try and get some sleep. She imagined that he would send her on her way in the morning, after he had time to interrogate her fully.

_I am not Sikhe of the Sheikah tribe. I am a liar and a danger to everyone around me. I cannot tell you why I am here, because if I did, you would never be safe. If you will take me in, it is only a matter of time until you become as hunted as I am._

She tried to sleep, but her lies kept circulating in her head. If they knew the truth, would it really make a difference? Clearly, they were already in danger just because they accepted her as a guest. It didn’t matter how much of a threat they really were. The least she could do now was tell them why misfortune had knocked on their door. Why taking her in was a mistake.

Moonlight streamed through the circular window above her, reflecting off of hanging shards of broken glass. She was lying on her back, watching as the jagged decorations danced in a nonexistent wind. Slowly, she turned over and sat up, her blonde hair falling in tangles around her shoulders. She stood to her feet and took a few steps forward, but stopped to look at the mirror to her left. She’d already hung the black mirror on the blank space that dominated Mikau’s otherwise cluttered wall of trinkets, intending to show it to him when he woke up. Yes, that was _when_ , not _if_. Her reflection looked about as horrible as she’d expected: messy hair tied into knots, cheap blue pajamas that were still creased from being folded for so long, bloodshot eyes with irises the color of roses. She tried to smile weakly at her own image, but it looked more like a grimace. Sighing, she turned away and pushed open the door to the main room.

Although she wanted to believe that she could have a moment to herself, Sikhe wasn’t surprised when she found someone else already sitting at the table. It was Tali, with his hands laced together and held in front of him while he stared into empty space. His open eyes suggested that he wasn’t asleep, but his distant gaze made her wonder if he was fully awake. The other seat at the table was taken by Mikau, who was still asleep and wrapped up in his scarf like a blanket. Compared to the absolute wrecks that Sikhe and Tali looked like, he seemed unnaturally peaceful in his slumber. The scene was tainted by the knowledge that he hadn’t stirred from his trance ever since he had been found soaked in his own blood after trying to fight two trained assassins alone.

Careful to avoid stepping on the parts of the floor that squeaked, Sikhe walked up to the table and planted her hands on the edge of the wooden surface, an equal distance from both of the other characters seated near her. Despite how horrible she felt, she couldn’t help but smile dryly at their positions. The crimson Tali to her left, the green Mikau at her right, and herself being dressed in deep blue... the triangle the three ironically formed was something that she saw everywhere back at her home. Its image was hung on almost every available surface, not to mention how often she had been told of its power, and her role in utilizing it for the good of the kingdom. Instinctively, she rubbed the back of her right hand, a habit she’d developed after continuously searching for something there that seemingly didn’t exist.

Tali finally seemed to notice her presence, and he sat up a little. She could see that his eyes were just as tired as her own. “Can’t sleep?” She asked, although the answer was quite obvious.

Instead of responding immediately, he leaned back in his chair to look up at her, as if he was trying to decide why she was out of her room. “Guess not,” he decided, sounding emotionally detached. Briefly, he glanced over at his still unconscious friend before facing Sikhe again. “Did you need something?”

“I... suppose you could say that.” She pushed herself up so that she no longer leaned on the table and took a few blind steps back, her shoulder bumping into the wall. “I need to tell the truth.”

The rito smirked, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Took you long enough. I’ve only known you were lying since the day I met you.” His smile quickly faded. “Of course, I didn’t think whatever your deal is would lead to... this. Whatever this is. So you’d better start telling me who you are, why you’re here, and how we’re somehow caught up in this.”

She nodded, shifting her weight slightly onto the wall behind her. “There is a lot for me to tell; I am not sure where to begin.”

“How about you start with your name?”

Sighing, she looked up at the ceiling, like she was studying the wooden planks for a moment. “My full name is Zelda Idri Hyrule. Sikhe is just a nickname I use every now and then.”

Tali inhaled sharply, immediately connecting the dots. For a beat, he remained silent. “I would say you were kidding, but that might actually explain some of this,” is what he finally said. “I sincerely hope you don’t expect me to call you ‘Your Highness’ from now on.”

Zelda managed a bitter laugh. “I would prefer it if you didn’t,” she admitted. “I would rather you still call me Sikhe than treat me like I’m...”

“... a princess?” He finished for her, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “Is that not what you are?”

“It is.” She still refused to meet his eyes, continuing to focus on the roof above their heads. “I just don’t like how distant that makes me sound. Even the name ‘Zelda’ reminds people of wise rulers and heroes of legend, not some half-breed excuse for a royal who’s just trying to be-”

Her words suddenly cut off once she realized how angry she was becoming for no reason. Slowly, she unclenched her hands from the fists that she hadn’t realized she’d formed and let her arms drop to her sides as she exhaled. Even if she wasn’t looking down at him, she could tell that Tali was silently judging her. Everyone was once they realized who she was. Perhaps more accurately, everyone judged her once they realized who she was supposed to be.

Closing her eyes, Zelda took a few deep breaths before tilting her head back down to face Tali. “I am sorry for my sudden outburst. Sometimes I just...” She trailed off once she opened her eyes. The rito was leaning forward, his beak touching the table and his eyes closed. Frowning, she took a step towards him to see what was wrong when she heard the sounds of his snoring. Oh. At least one of them was able to fall asleep, even if he had odd timing.

She’d already decided that she would get little to no sleep that night, and since she couldn’t reach Tali’s loft to get his blankets, she reasoned he would use hers more than she would. She turned around and walked back into Mikau’s room, where she grabbed the blanket that was crumpled up on the foot of the bed. The blanket that was spread out was more comfortable, but for some reason it felt slightly wet, so she thought it would be a little selfish to give him the soggy blanket. After bundling her chosen cover into her arms, she turned to walk back out of the room, but froze when she saw something looming in the shadows ahead.

Not something. Some _one_.

Naturally, she feared the worst and assumed that it was another sheikah traitor who’d come to take care of her once and for all. Trying to think fast, she dropped the blanket and readied herself in a defensive position. She would try to grab a weapon, as her hand-to-hand skills were only mediocre, but Mikau didn’t have any in his room currently and her sword was propped against Tali’s workbench. If she was desperate, she could try to make a dash for it, but that would leave her defenseless and give her opponent the perfect opportunity to strike.

However, the shadowy figure on the opposite end of the table made no move to potentially attack. In fact, they raised their hands to show that they meant no harm. Wary, Zelda relaxed ever so slightly, but kept her gaze trained on the taller silhouette. The stranger refrained from making any sudden movements, lowering their hands as slowly as possible.

To Zelda’s surprise, the figure then spoke, and their voice was familiar. “Is it still raining outside?” She asked, her deep voice bearing the same accent as the princess, and many other residents of Castle Town.

Relief washed over Zelda, and she released her fists. “It hasn’t stopped for three moons,” she responded, completing the password.

Although the princess already knew who it was, the new arrival flicked back her hood and revealed her face, confirming that it was indeed the leader of the sheikah herself, Impa. Zelda smiled, although it was weak due to today’s pain and exhaustion. 

Tali’s mumbling made her look back at him, but he still appeared to be asleep. Maybe he was one of those people that would mutter in his dreams, although whatever he was saying didn’t sound like it was in hylian. A thought occurred to her, causing her to cross her arms and look back at Impa. “Are you the reason he fell asleep in the middle of our conversation?”

Her old mentor gave her a half smile. “Me? No.” She shook her head, moonlight bouncing off of her white hair. “I’m sure if you listen closely, though, the culprit will make himself known.”

At first, Zelda was confused, but then she did think she could hear something. Her right ear twitched at the sound. It was almost like music, although it was muffled, presumably coming from outside. A couple more seconds listening, and she was able to recognize the sound of a lute playing an old goron lullaby. Anvu must have been nearby.

Impa cleared her throat, making herself the center of attention once more. “We are here to warn you,” she said quietly. “All of the traitors have been taken care of but two: Kiton and Palah. We believe that they know where you are hidden and are coming for you. I know that Kiton is an old friend of yours, but you have to trust me when I say that he is against you, no matter who you think he-”

“I killed him.”

She blinked. “Pardon?”

Trying not to fall back into her earlier pain, Zelda tightened her arms around herself. “They arrived earlier today. I wasn’t at the house at the time, but...” She hesitated. How would Impa react when she heard that an untrained fisherman had killed one of the castle’s elite warriors? She should have taken the time to find a skilled way to say it, but Impa would find out eventually, so she might as well say it now. “The zora that’s sleeping to your left? He killed Palah, but Kiton almost killed him in return. So I...” Again, she found herself stopping, so she cleared her throat and tried to move on. “They’re both buried behind the house.”

After she finished speaking, the room was once again quiet, save for the distant sound of Anvu’s music. Impa looked at Mikau with an expression somewhere between interest and respect. “You all seem unscathed,” she noted, facing the young woman once again.

Zelda almost laughed callously at the misconception, but it would have sounded more like she was choking thanks to how tight her throat felt right now. “Yeah, we do,” she agreed in a biting tone. “That’s what happens when you are lucky enough to almost die near a spirit’s spring. Did you know that the light spirits still leave scars to remind you of how you would have perished without their grace?”

At the princess’ sour tone, Impa furrowed her brow, but let it fade quickly. “I am sorry to hear of their misfortune. However, if what you say is true, then I propose we bring you back to the castle at once so that this whole ordeal is over with.”

Although she knew she was raised better, Zelda couldn’t keep herself from rolling her eyes. “This whole ordeal was your idea,” she pointed out. “Why couldn’t I have stayed at the castle and defended myself? No one else would have to be hurt that way.”

The warrior frowned. “Your Grace, if you were left at the castle, I have no doubt that you would have been attacked.”

Irritated, Zelda spread her arms dramatically to gesture to her surroundings and the two sleeping figures in the room. “Clearly, that never would have happened if I fled like a coward,” she countered sarcastically. “You know, for courage being the primary element that saves Hyrule time and time again, everyone seems to be going out of their way to make sure I don’t possess it. Do you think I’m too delicate to potentially get hurt? Like I’m some sort of painting that might get scratched if I try to be more than a decoration to hang on the wall? No, I’ve got it. I can’t die because I’m the _goddess_ , which makes me _valuable_. But do you know why the goddess had to become a mortal in the first place? She was almost killed because she didn’t run away from the danger. She stood and fought, and the humans were saved because of her courage.”

Impa waited patiently through the princess’ spiel. Once she finished, she sighed. “I know that, princess. I thought this would be the safest way for you and everyone else.” Briefly, she glanced at Mikau. “Perhaps I was wrong. Should this ever occur again, I will consult you before making any decisions on your behalf. Now, your father is waiting for you. We must go.”

Zelda hesitated. She looked to Tali and Mikau, who were both sleeping peacefully. How would they react if they woke up and she was missing? Would they assume she’d been stolen in the night, or think nothing of it and continue with their lives? She knew she had to go soon, but she just wanted a chance to say goodbye and thank them for accepting her, despite the pain she’d clearly brought upon them. However, she also knew that Impa wouldn’t give her that chance. Sighing, she rubbed the back of her neck. “Just let me get my belongings,” she said before turning back into Mikau’s room.

Packing certainly didn’t take long. All she had to do was tuck her stealth armor into the bag of holding that contained everything she’d bought at the market, strap it around her waist, and she was ready to go. Physically, at least, if not mentally.

Briefly, she lingered in the room, staring at the wall of sketches. She’d been curious of who they all were ever since Mikau had shown her the one of her ancestor. Even if she’d lied about not knowing who she was, she was certain that it was Queen Zelda of the Force Era, although the picture depicted her as a young princess. The fact that it was a very real person naturally led to her wondering if the same went for all of them. She wanted to stay and study every drawing for more familiar faces, but she knew that she needed to go. Reluctantly, she turned away from the wall and stepped back into the central room.

The music seemed to be louder now, and when she looked up she could see that it was because Anvu had stepped inside. He smiled at her, although she could not return the kind expression. They were both royals who were expected to do nothing more than fulfill whatever destiny had been given to them at birth; Anvu just had a little more freedom at first glance. Did he not see that he was just as trapped as the princess, who was currently being retrieved like some sort of lost dog?

“Are you ready?” Impa asked, holding out her right hand. Her left was holding on to Anvu’s upper arm, ready to warp with him. They couldn’t teleport all the way to the castle, but they could go short distances at a time and walk every now and then.

“One more thing,” Zelda replied. Ignoring the curious looks the sheikah and gerudo gave her, she picked Mikau’s blanket up off of the floor, walked behind Tali, and wrapped it around him as she’d intended to do before her “rescuers” appeared. Once she was sure that the blanket wouldn’t slide off, she took a step back and accepted Impa’s offered hand.

Just before they left, she looked down at Mikau, who still appeared to be sleeping soundly, and Tali, who was enchanted to look the same. The word “Goodbye” was barely able to leave her lips the moment before she vanished into thin air, along with her two old companions. The room was finally silent, leaving the rito and zora to sleep alone and in peace.


	7. Voices

Tali hadn’t even realized that he’d fallen asleep until the next morning, when he woke up in a rather uncomfortable seated position. Groaning, he tried to lift his arms to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but something held them down. Confused and concerned, he opened his eyes and looked down to see one of Mikau’s blankets wrapped tightly around himself. His first thought was that someone had tried to tie him to his chair, for whatever reason, but a bit of squirming caused the wrappings to slide off fairly easily. Perhaps whoever had bundled him up was just trying to keep him warm after all.

Of course, that segued into his next question of who had given him the blanket. A quick glance to his left confirmed that his roommate was still sound asleep, which led to a reasonable amount of concern. Quickly, he hopped to his feet and walked over to Mikau, leaning down to see him more clearly. He was still breathing. Sighing in relief, Tali straightened up and made his way to Sikhe’s room to check on her as well.

Wait. His hand hovered over her door knob as the events of last night began coming back to him. When she told him who she really was. He still wasn’t quite over the fact that she was actually a princess, but now that he tried to think back to that conversation, he couldn’t remember how it had ended. She’d asked him to not refer to her as a princess, then she started explaining why, and then... he drifted off. It was strange, considering that he’d tried for hours to fall asleep, but only did so successfully once something interesting was happening. In fact, it was borderline suspicious.

_**“It’s almost as if she enchanted you to fall asleep.”** _

Tali whipped around when he heard a completely unfamiliar voice. “Who’s there?!” He asked, whipping his head back and forth. Subconsciously, he crouched into a defensive position, like he did at the start of his sparring matches with Mikau. 

Despite how hard he looked, no one else seemed to be in the room. Mikau still slept in his awkward position in the chair, appearing as if he could slide out at any moment. The only movement in the house was the dance of shadows and light coming in through the window behind the table. All they did was illuminate the empty room, showing that there really was not another soul awake.

Apprehensive, Tali stood back up into a normal position and opened the door behind himself without looking, keeping his eyes trained on the room for any movement. _Maybe I’m just going insane,_ he decided when no one else appeared. After giving the room one last check, he ducked into the room that Sikhe - no, Zelda had been staying in.

As expected, the disguised princess was nowhere to be seen. Her belongings were missing as well, although he did notice that there was a new mirror hanging where the old one once rested. Zelda must have placed it there. Curious, he tapped its dark glass surface to see if anything would happen. He’d heard tales of entities possessing inanimate objects, and while he’d treated them as no more than fairy tales at the time, it was the only way he could explain that voice he wasn’t hearing. Aside from insanity, that is, but he hoped that there was a less dire alternative. Regardless, the mirror didn’t respond to his touch. He couldn’t decide if he should be relieved or concerned.

The unfamiliar voice chuckled, causing Tali to tense up. _**“Oh, you’re looking for me in all of the wrong places, but your efforts are amusing to me. I implore you to keep trying.”**_

Spinning around, Tali scanned every inch of the room for the source of the voice. However, no matter which direction he turned, the sounds of the stranger laughing seemed to come from everywhere at once. “Come out here and face me, coward!” He yelled, eyes alert.

_**“Ooh, how tempting,”**_ the decidedly masculine voice chaffed, _**“but I’m afraid I can’t. That’s why I came to you, after all. Help me out, and it will be well worth it.”**_

Tali hesitated. This wasn’t making any sense. “You know what, forget it,” he said, returning to a casual stance and walking calmly back into the main room. “If you’re not even real, I don’t know why I should bother to-”

_**“I AM REAL!!! DOUBT ME AGAIN, YOU FEATHERBRAINED MORTAL, AND WHEN WE MEET I WILL NOT HESITATE TO-”** _

“See, now I don’t want to help you at all,” Tali interrupted calmly, picking up a sword that was leaning on his workbench to inspect it. The slightly curved blade clearly didn’t belong to himself, but maybe Zelda had forgotten it when she ran away in the night. She had all the time in the world to leave, seeing as both of the house’s residents were asleep at the time, so he couldn’t imagine why she would be rushed enough to forget her own weapon. While it was only mildly interesting to him at the time, he made a point of making himself look deeply engrossed in the mystery and ignoring the not-quite-there visitor, much to their displeasure.

He could practically hear the stranger bristle. **_“Are you not in awe of my clear majesty and superiority?”_** They asked.

Acting as bored as possible, the rito laid the sword down on his desk on top of the clawshot design. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Mikau’s flute was teetering on the edge of his desk after likely being offhandedly placed there, so he rolled it back to keep it from falling off. “Believe it or not, no.” He began picking nonexistent dirt out of the barbs on his hand feathers. “So far, the only thing I know about you is that you have a voice. Considering that I have a voice _and_ a body, I’d say that I’m the superior one in this equation.”

In the back of his head, he could hear them make an irritated “tch” sound. _**“You goddess-worshippers never change.”**_ They paused, potentially trying to brainstorm a more tactful response. _**“Fine, then. Because I am gracious, I will allow for one show of my power at your request, but the rest of my gifts must wait until after you have done something for me in return.”**_

Tali rolled his eyes. “Bring back the dead,” he said sarcastically, unimpressed by the disembodied voice.

To his surprise, the stranger didn’t squawk indignantly at his outrageous demand. A strange buzzing at the back of his mind that he hadn’t even realized was there began to fade, but before he could wonder what it meant, he heard a sudden _GASP_ from behind him rather than all around. He whirled to face the source of the noise, and all of his earlier confusion concerning the stranger was quickly replaced by joy at what he saw.

Mikau was awake.

He was clutching the table with both hands, wide-eyed and panicked for no obvious reason. His breathing was quick, which contrasted sharply against its earlier state of barely being visible. In his first few moments of being awake, he just stared at the middle distance and tried to calm his racing heart. It was very obvious that he was both scared and confused.

Cautiously, Tali began approaching him from the side, not making any sudden movements. A few steps in, Mikau noticed him, and he froze. The fear was still in his eyes, but he managed to smile slightly at the sight and slow his breathing. Tali grinned warmly in response. “You alright there, buddy?”

Mikau hesitated, unsure of if he really was okay. Eventually, he settled on just nodding and trying to stand, but he almost fell forward. His companion reflexively lurched forward to catch him, but he waved him away. _'I’m fine,'_ he signed, although his back disagreed.

Anxious, Tali flexed his fingers to quell his instinct to support his friend. While he was concerned about just how bad his back still was, it didn’t completely douse his happiness at seeing his friend up and moving again.

That strange buzzing sensation returned to his thoughts. _**“You owe me,”**_ the voice informed him in a singsong tone before fading away, taking the buzzing with them.

He rubbed the back of his head, wondering if the stranger was still there, but Mikau waving caught his attention. _'What happened?'_ He asked, clearly confused as to why he woke up in a creaky chair as opposed to the afterlife.

Tali managed to smile again. “I was actually about to ask the same of you,” he pointed out. “Since your ordeal of sorts happened first, how about you start?”

After contemplating that for a couple of seconds, he nodded, but furrowed his brow. _'Where’s Sikhe?'_

“She, uh...” Tali twisted his mouth in thought. “She’s gone. I’ll explain that on my turn, okay?”

Mikau looked even more confused, but he started signing out his story anyways. _'So it all began when I started looking for my flute...'_

* * *

Sleepless nights led to painful days, Zelda decided as she was summoned to her father’s throne room after only two hours of rest. It was better than none, she supposed, but that didn’t change how horrible she felt walking down the hall in her royal dress, as opposed to lying down in bed and lounging in her soft pajamas. Her sandals, while relatively open and breezy compared to most of her boots, felt far too tight, but the king might die of a heart attack then and there if she showed up barefoot.

Luckily for her, Impa was the one escorting her through the castle, as opposed to some of the chatty (and admittedly annoying) hylian guards. She’d heard rumors that the guards were all dishonorably discharged after abandoning their posts around the king, but she’d been too tired last night to listen to gossip. She was still considerably sleepy now, but at least she’d had a small reprieve.

Impa was watching her carefully with her ever observant eyes. Thus, she likely caught when the princess tripped over her own feet a couple of times but continued marching forward, refusing to admit her fatigue. Amused, but also concerned for her charge’s safety, the warrior slowed to a halt. Zelda quickly followed suit.

After Impa studied the princess thoroughly, Zelda deduced that she could clearly see the exhaustion in every fiber of her being. Silently, the sheikah reached into an inner pocket of her cloak and pulled out a small vial, which she then passed to her onlooker. Zelda frowned, but took the offering anyway.

“Green potion?” She asked, looking down at the mystery liquid. The color of the concoction was quite obvious, but at the moment she couldn’t focus enough to decide if it was an energizing elixir, enduring elixir, or some nondescript stamina potion, so she just categorized it as “green.”

“Drink it,” Impa instructed, and she obeyed. At first, she gagged at the taste of crickets and various other dubious ingredients, but she quickly got over herself and chugged the entire thing. Satisfied, Impa began moving forward again, and the royal fell in step beside her.

Zelda’s fatigue felt like it was lifting right off of her shoulders. Suddenly invigorated, she began actually lifting her feet off of the ground as she walked instead of dragging them over the carpeted floor. “Thank you,” she said, admiring the empty vial and how quickly its contents had worked. When her caretaker only responded with a quiet hum, she continued. “Do you always carry green potions around with you?”

“Of course,” she replied, not looking back. “I need the energy. I cannot afford to potentially falter in my duties, after all.”

The princess almost snorted. “That’s what sleep is for,” she pointed out. Impa fell strangely silent at that. Growing slightly concerned, Zelda trotted to be in front of the older woman and look her in the eye. “Impa... when was the last time you slept?”

She seemed to consider the question for a spell. “I have been hard at work protecting you and your father recently. It is hard to find a time to rest.”

Zelda scowled. “Impa, how long has it been?”

“About two weeks,” she concluded nonchalantly.

“ _IMPA!!!_ ” Despite the woman being at least a couple of decades older than herself, Zelda swatted her guardian on the shoulder, but her smile and light laughter betrayed that she wasn’t completely serious, only exasperated.

A small grin broke through Impa’s usually calm and serious demeanor. However, before she could respond to the princess, they had reached the throne room. Reluctantly, Zelda broke eye contact with her and backed away to walk by her side.

“Ah, you’re here.” Zelda’s father, the king, was seated on his throne and watching the new arrivals. Impa bowed in respect. “I apologize for summoning you after what I’m sure was a troubled night, but I do not believe that this can wait.”

Zelda nodded. “I understand.” Briefly, she flicked her gaze off to the side to see if anyone else was in the room, and to her surprise, there were three bystanders. One was Anvu, the former prince of the gerudo, who was now the royal bard and Zelda’s closest friend. He stood a fair distance away from the other two who were already in the chamber. It took a moment for Zelda to recognize Inrah, since their face was turned away from her, and most sheikah guards looked similar from their backsides. Holding their left arm was a complete stranger to the princess, with light purple hair, ornate but unfamiliar clothing, and pale skin that looked like it had almost never seen the sun. He seemed her age, but also skittish, based on his constant twitching. From her angle, it looked like he was using healing magic on Inrah, but she wasn’t sure when they got injured. Inrah looked up and smiled at Zelda as she watched, but the stranger didn’t seem to notice her yet.

Her attention snapped back to the king as he cleared his throat. “As I’m sure you are aware, we now seem to be lacking in defenses around the castle,” he began. “I’m afraid that in our current state, we cannot ensure your safety.”

He paused, and Zelda took that opportunity to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Oh, for the Love of Nayru,” she groaned, “don’t tell me you’re hiding me again.”

The king hesitated. “I know that you may not like it, but it’s the only way to keep you safe from any more potential traitors.”

Biting her tongue, she forced herself to wait through his short explanation before pitching in her two rupees. “I take it that’s why you’re not consulting your advisors about this situation?” She hypothesized. “You’re afraid that they will betray you as well?”

He nodded. She just sighed and began twisting a strand of hair around her finger in thought. While she appreciated her father’s concern, she didn’t want to just sit back and watch as her kingdom unraveled. _Again_. Surely there was something that she could do. Arguing with her father right now was out of the question, but maybe she could try to convince him of an alternate solution.

“What are we doing about the royal guard?” She tried, looking for an opportunity. “Surely you are working on finding replacements.”

“Of course we are,” he replied. “In fact, Impa is currently serving as the head of recruitment, and is looking for more soldiers to train. It will be a slow process, but we will rebuild our kingdom’s strength.”

An idea began forming in Zelda’s head. “But how do we know that they won’t betray us? All of the other traitors were hand-picked to guard the royal family out of trust, so why will this time be different?” She could see her father stall for a moment, trying to think of an answer. That was exactly the reaction that she’d been looking for, so she continued. “We need to find someone who will never betray us. Someone that has always defended the royal family.”

Beside her, Impa raised her eyebrows, catching on to where she was going with this. The king was a bit more confused. “What do you mean by that?”

Zelda smiled. “We need to find the Hero.”

Stunned silence dominated the throne room. Her gaze was focused on her father, eager to see his reaction, but on the edge of her sight she could see the pale stranger stiffen. No one spoke a word, but Inrah and Impa were both looking at the young man with purple hair now. Eventually, both Zelda and the king looked his way as well. Realizing that all eyes were on him and his reaction, he cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that’s impossible,” he stated, releasing Inrah’s arm in favor of wringing his hands. “You see, centuries ago the hero wielded the Four Sword, as I’m sure you know. It’s not the first time in history that the sword was used, but this hero was separated for a much longer period of time, and when they reunited as one boy, the triforce of courage never fully recovered. It was split into four pieces, and when the hero died, those pieces were scattered across Hyrule. The triforce is the only definitive way to find the hero, as it rests within him, but it cannot find the hero in pieces.”

Zelda frowned at the stranger. “What about the Master Sword?” She offered. “Only those who are deemed worthy can wield it, and unlike the Four Sword, it doesn’t have a demon sealed inside that will be freed the moment the sword is drawn.”

The young man grimaced. “That’s true, but it often kills those who are ‘unworthy’ and try to pull it. Do you really want it to kill every potential candidate before you can find the right one?”

“I... hmm.” She crossed her arms. “Excuse me, but I don’t think we’ve been introduced. Who are you, and how do you know all of this?”

He blinked. “Oh. I’m Vaen, the Great Fairy of Magic. I reside just outside of the castle. As for how I know this...” At first, he twisted his mouth in thought, but eventually shrugged. “I dunno, we fairies just know a lot. That’s why the king brought me here in the first place.”

Zelda raised an eyebrow. “I thought fairies couldn’t leave their fountains. Don’t you have wings, too?”

Lightly, Impa nudged the princess with her shoulder. “Not important right now,” she murmured.

Vaen didn’t hear the guardian. “Of course I have wings; I’m just not using them at the moment.” He paused for a couple of seconds, potentially studying Zelda. “Speaking of deceiving appearances, you seem awfully young to be a royal advisor.”

“And you seem awfully young to be a Great Fairy,” she countered. “You look like you’re, what, eighteen?”

“Fifty-seven, actually, but close.”

As Zelda jerked back in surprise, Inrah leaned slightly towards Vaen. “She’s not an advisor,” they whispered. “Not officially, anyway.”

Confused, the fairy scrunched his eyebrows together. “Who are you, then?”

“I am Princess Zelda of Hyrule. Did nobody think to tell you that?”

Now it was Vaen’s turn to reel in shock. Inrah shrugged a bit sheepishly, as if they really had forgotten to mention it earlier. Impa and Anvu, on the other hand, both looked slightly amused, as if this had been their plan all along. Hastily, the fairy dropped down onto a knee, trying to make up for his earlier lack of respect. His eyes flicked towards the king, like he was expecting some form of punishment, but Norian seemed lost in his thoughts at the moment. Zelda rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “In fact, I’d rather you not go out of your way to be formal. Just ‘Zelda’ will be fine.”

Vaen scrambled back to his feet and resumed wringing his hands. “Of course, Pri- uh, Zelda.”

They both went quiet after that, staring at each other awkwardly. After what may have been a minute of doing nothing, Zelda looked back at her father to see if he would intervene and resume the important conversation they’d been having before she messed it up. He continued staring at a point in midair before realizing that they were waiting on him. Quickly, he straightened up.

“Is there a way to restore the triforce?” He asked, completely skipping over the entire interaction that he’d missed out on. “Perhaps if we were able to piece it back together, Farore would return it to our hero.”

Vaen considered this. “If all of the pieces were found and reunited, I’m sure the triforce would repair itself. There’s just the trouble of finding them.”

The king frowned. “And finding someone to search for them,” he remarked, although it seemed more like he was talking to himself. “We do only have two warriors left, and there’s all of Hyrule to search, not to mention someone needs to guard my daughter...” Anvu cleared his throat, and the royal nodded. “Yes, yes. Three warriors.”

Nervously, Vaen lifted a hand to get his attention. “If I may, Your Highness, I would love to be of assistance. I may not be a fighter, but my skill in magic may aid you, not to mention my connection with the spirits of the land.”

“Alright, so that’s four.” King Norian leaned back, trying to look at the small group of people gathered. “Hyrule has four noble souls left to protect the blood of the goddess and find her chosen hero.”

“Five!” All heads turned to see the source of the voice, who was none other than Zelda herself, with her arms crossed. “There are five of us!” Her father opened his mouth to protest, but she didn’t give him the chance. “I have been training my entire life for defending my kingdom, yet now that I need to, I’m being locked away like a prisoner! What kind of ruler would I be if I just sat back and watched as my kingdom crumbled? Someone needs to do something for Hyrule, so it might as well be me!”

The king was silent. Hesitantly, he turned towards Impa, his primary source of advice. Zelda looked to her as well, remembering her words from the night before. _Should this ever occur again, I will consult you before making any decisions on your behalf._ It was already happening again, and Zelda had made her stance on the matter quite clear.

Impa tilted her head. A small smile appeared on her lips when she looked down at the princess. “I believe that you should let her go, my king.”

A beat passed. Norian rubbed his chin, thinking. Finally, he looked up at Zelda. “Is this what you want?” She nodded, and he sighed. “Very well. You may go.”

Zelda beamed as Impa merely smiled. “My king, if I may make a suggestion,” she started, “I request that I remain in Hyrule Castle to defend you, while the princess leads the others to find the triforce.”

The king nodded in consideration. “Yes, I will allow that.”

At this, Inrah stepped forward, away from Vaen. “Your Highness, I have a suggestion as well.” He motioned for them to continue. “Our current group consists of two sheikah, a great fairy, and the one gerudo male in all of Hyrule. That seems awfully recognizable. Do you think we could find some civilians to accompany us, so that there’s at least someone on the team who doesn’t stand out? We could also benefit from someone who’s not from the castle, as they likely have a better understanding of how the people in the kingdom operate.”

“That is an excellent point, Inrah.” King Norian debated this for a moment or two. “While I agree that it would be nice to have a companion from somewhere other than Castle Town, there is the problem of finding someone that we can trust. We don’t know how deep the treachery is in this kingdom. For all we know, everyone is turned against us. It will be nearly impossible for us to find someone who is not involved in some way or another, aside from poor farmers who do not even know how to swing a sword.”

Impa and Zelda immediately exchanged a glance, apparently having the same thought. The former seemed less sure, but the latter clearly was set on her new idea. Still smiling, the princess turned back to her father. “If I were to find, say, a poor fisherman who was capable of defending himself against a sheikah assassin, would that be the kind of person we are looking for?”

Clearly, the king noticed how oddly specific her question was, raising an eyebrow. “Why, yes. Finding someone who fits that role may be more than a bit difficult, though.”

Zelda grinned. “I’ve already found him.”


	8. The Call

Clear skies over Lake Hylia were truly beautiful. It was a shame that Mikau was too lost in his thoughts to enjoy it.

After telling his half of the tale, Mikau had listened intently to Tali’s story of what happened after he’d lost consciousness. It all sounded strange and almost unreal. It was a lot to process, especially since it had all been dumped on him after the fact, and now he had to deal with Sikhe’s disappearance, his new scar, and the strange sheikah warriors all at once. He needed some time to think it through, so he left Tali to work on building his clawshot and decided to go fishing.

At the moment, “fishing” looked a whole lot like “staring at the water and doing nothing.” Absentmindedly, Mikau would poke his fingers in the water and chase a couple of minnows around, but he never caught anything. The only gear he brought was a small net, and he wasn’t even using it. Fishing was a lot easier with a trident as opposed to his bare hands, but even though Tali had cleaned all of the blood off when he was still unconscious, he couldn’t bring himself to pick it back up. Had he really killed someone with it?

He was snapped out of his reverie by something splashing in front of him. Looking up, he could see that a fellow zora had just surfaced from the depths of the lake, and was currently treading water a fair distance away from him. He quickly recognized her as one of the priestesses of Nayru that often visited the Lakebed Temple. Her pale scales shone brilliantly in the sunlight, causing him to squint. As expected, she smiled and waved at him, and he waved back.

“Good afternoon,” she greeted. He only replied with his usual grin, although it was slightly forced due to the pain in his back. Seeing this, she hesitated. “Hey... Tali told me what happened yesterday. You alright?” Biting his lip, Mikau looked back down at the water and remained silent. The priestess’ smile faded away. “Do you need any help?” He quickly shook his head, and she sighed. “Well... how about a distraction? You don’t go to the Domain that often, do you? If you want, I could take you up there, and we could... I don’t know, shop? They’ve got some neat markets up there selling goods you’ll never find anywhere else.”

Mikau’s hand froze just as it was about to graze a minnow’s side. The offer was actually quite tempting. It was true that he rarely visited Zora’s Domain; the swim up the river was arduous, not to mention dangerous when you didn’t have someone to watch your back, so he only went up there when he absolutely needed something that he couldn’t find anywhere else. To date, he may have only been to the top of Zora’s River three times. He didn’t know any of the priestesses very well, but this one had tried to make conversation with him multiple times and seemed pretty nice. Surely she would help him up the river, since he lacked experience in those particular rapids.

However, he shook his head to decline the invitation. A distraction was the last thing he needed right now, as he tried to sort his thoughts out. Besides, even if he did go with her to the markets, it’s not like he had a significant sum of money to spend. Anything exclusive to those markets would undoubtedly be worth more rupees than he could spare.

The priestess smiled sadly, but nodded. “I understand. If you ever change your mind, though, you know when and where to find us.” She waited a few seconds more to see if he responded, and when he didn’t she turned towards Zora’s River and began swimming. He watched her form grow smaller and smaller in his vision until she was only a pale streak on the lake, at which point he looked away and began swirling his fingers in the water again.

He glanced up at the surface of the water, and the sun’s reflection gave him pause. What time was it, anyway? He’d lost track while sitting on the shore and doing absolutely nothing. Based on the sun’s position, he guessed that Tali would be hungry soon, and he just couldn’t ignore his own stomach rumbling. Maybe he would have to catch some fish after all.

As an experienced fisherman, Mikau wasted no time at all in catching two decently sized fish. One for him, and one for his roommate. Satisfied with their newfound meals, he walked back to their house and slung the now dripping net over the chair outside, just as he had done yesterday. Gripping both fish in his left hand, he used his free appendage to push open the front door before walking inside, using a foot to nudge it back shut.

Tali was sitting at the table, his chair positioned to face the entryway. He was fiddling with something unidentifiable, but it appeared to be made of metal. Carefully, he began wrapping a chain around the central piece of the contraption, which was some sort of cylinder. A closer looked revealed that it was his new clawshot that he had started building.

Quietly, Mikau set the fish down on two plates and scooted one towards his roommate, trying not to disturb his flow. Tali always got irritated when someone interrupted him at work. To avoid being on the receiving end of his annoyance today, Mikau gingerly sat down in the remaining chair, hoping that it wouldn’t creak too loudly. Luckily, the rito didn’t seem to notice, or was at least able to ignore it.

Minutes passed without a word said between the two. Mikau finished his meal, while Tali had only taken a couple of bites out of his every now and then. The former was now just sitting back and twiddling his thumbs, his mind wandering. As much as he wanted to think about something else, his mind kept returning to Sikhe. He wasn’t all that bothered by her leaving; she was just a traveler, so it was bound to happen eventually. What saddened him was that she left without even saying goodbye. Would it have killed her to wait for him to wake up so that they could have a proper farewell?

... Now that he considered it, maybe. Those sheikah assassins weren’t for him, after all.

For the second time that day, his thoughts halted abruptly in response to some external distraction. This time, it was a knocking at the door. Both Mikau and Tali immediately tensed, the latter unintentionally dropping his clawshot. Could it be more assassins?

Slowly, Mikau stood up to see who was at the door. He was hesitant, for obvious reasons, but if it was just an innocent neighbor, he didn’t want to keep them waiting. He made his way to the door, but stopped just before opening it. Paranoia kept him from grasping the handle.

“Hang on,” Tali said, standing up. As his friend stood still, he walked back to his desk, grabbed something off of it, and came up beside Mikau. “You might want this,” he offered as he held it out, “just in case.”

Mikau looked down, and was surprised to see a sword being held out to him. He didn’t know they even owned a sword. It only had a blade on one side, but that didn’t affect him; he didn’t know how to use a sword either way. The only thing he was confident he could do was stab, and the tip was sharp enough for that regardless. Cautiously, he reached out and took the sword in his left hand. It was too small for him, but he could manage. Tali didn’t move from his side, fists held up. The rito had always been skilled in hand to hand combat, so he could hold his own without a weapon.

Now armed, Mikau took a deep breath before swinging the door wide open, prepared to face whatever was waiting for him. At least, that was the idea. His preparations more or less when out the window when he actually saw who it was.

The human in front of him flinched when the sword fell out of Mikau’s hand, clattering onto the ground below. She blinked at it for a second before looking up at the taller figure’s face. Her wide, red, pointed eyes were not what he was expecting to see when he opened his door. After a few seconds of staring at each other in silence, the half-sheikah girl’s face was split by a huge grin.

“You’re awake!” Sikhe exclaimed brightly. At least, he was pretty sure it was Sikhe. They had the same hair and face, but her locks were falling freely over her back instead of secured in a bun, and she was wearing an unfamiliar blue dress as opposed to anything even vaguely sheikah related. He couldn’t help but stare for a minute just to take in her appearance.

Hearing the familiar voice, Tali lightly pushed his roommate to the side so that he could get a better look. Unlike the bedroom door, this frame was tall enough for him to see out of without ducking, but he still had to look down to view the newcomer. If the voice hadn’t given it away, he certainly recognized her now. He crossed his arms and made a “hmm” sound. “Well, what do you know,” he began apathetically, leaning on the side of the doorway. “A visit from the elusive Zelda.”

Mikau frowned in confusion. Why was he calling her Zelda? Wasn’t her name- _oh_. She was the _princess_. Amongst all of the other chaos of today (yesterday?), he’d managed to forget that small detail. Actually, it wasn’t a small detail. It was a very big and important detail that changed literally everything and provided at least a little bit of sense for what he had gone through. Sort of.

Impulsively, Mikau tried dropping into a kneeling position, but only managed to smack his head against the doorframe when lowering himself instead. Sikhe - or Zelda, rather, inhaled sharply and jerked back. Tali jumped, but quickly grabbed the zora’s shoulders and pulled him back up. “Din’s Fire, Mikau!” He exclaimed, checking the shorter person for injuries. “Try not to bust open your head, too!” Mikau tried to laugh it off, but it actually did hurt, so it came out sounding more like a cough.

“You need any help up there?” All three heads spun around to see the person who’d spoken with the somewhat high pitched voice. Neither of the locals had realized Zelda had an entourage, but now they saw that there were three more people waiting on them. The shortest one, who presumably was the one who had spoken, had strange purple hair, pale skin, and a face rounder than Zelda’s. He looked slightly familiar to Mikau, although he was certain that they had never met before in their lives. To the short person’s right was someone who completely towered over him, and he immediately recognized the second stranger as a gerudo. They were about the same height as Tali. What Mikau found curious was that they definitely appeared to be male. Finally, the third newcomer looked like a fairly ordinary sheikah, but with a red line under each eye in addition to the eye on her forehead. Were they a “her”? It was hard to tell, so maybe he should just use “they” for now. Luckily, you didn’t have to worry about pronouns when you spoke through sign language.

Zelda turned back to face the zora. “No, I think... I think we’re okay...?” Due to her height (or lack thereof), she couldn’t see any injuries on his head, but even if she could Tali was too busy fussing over his skull to let anyone get a clear view. After determining that there were no injuries, he nodded and took a step back.

As Mikau shuffled to the side to avoid being grabbed again, Tali returned his wings to their usual state of being folded in front of him. “Alright, what do you want? I highly doubt you came here just to give us a proper goodbye.”

Zelda frowned, hearing the poorly hidden hostility in his voice. Her eyes flicked to Mikau, who was waiting expectantly for the answer. He looked more curious than angry, but there was something sad in his eyes. Why had she left him without a word? Was she so ready to abandon everyone at a moment’s notice?

Sighing, Zelda turned back to Tali. “We were hoping for your help,” she admitted. Tali opened his mouth to interject, but she continued speaking. “I know you probably don’t want to-” She managed to ignore his scoff “-but Hyrule is in danger, and you’re the only people I can think of to assist us. We need someone who is at least somewhat familiar with the people of Hyrule, and that we can trust.” She stopped to think for half a second before adding, “Because I trust you.”

Tali appeared to be considering this, but Mikau interrupted his debate by tapping his shoulder. _'I think we should go,'_ he signed excitedly. _'It’s not like we have anything better to do, after all.'_

“Yeah, we do,” Tali countered. “I’d say you recovering is better than gallivanting across all of Hyrule for... whatever reason.” Mikau’s smile wavered, and he subconsciously reached over his shoulder and tapped the top of his scar. “Yeah. You really think I’m going to let you run off and get yourself injured again?”

To his surprise, Mikau’s face hardened slightly. _'It’s my choice whether I go or not,'_ he pointed out. Tali winced, realizing how controlling he’d been. Seeing this, the zora managed a small smile. _'But I hope you’ll come with me. I really don’t want to leave you behind.'_

Tali sat still for a piece, thinking, before he sighed. “You know, you should at least ask someone if you’re getting paid before risking your life for them,” he informed him. “But yeah... I’ll come too.”

On the other side of the doorway, Zelda beamed. She was about to say something, but was cut off prematurely by one of the people behind her. “Was that a yes?” He asked, causing everyone to look at him. This time, it was the gerudo who spoke. Like his appearance, his voice was certainly masculine, so Mikau wondered if they were in the presence of another royal. All gerudo males were automatically royalty, right? Strangely, he didn’t have a strong desert accent; his seemed to be a mix between the typical accent of the gerudo and whatever Zelda had.

Somewhat exasperated, Zelda mimicked Tali’s crossed arms and turned to fully face the maybe-prince. “You couldn’t have waited ten seconds for me to just say so?”

He shook his head, a deadpan expression on his face. “Clearly not.”

Tali cleared his throat. “How long will this expedition take?” He asked. 

“Hmm...” Zelda tapped her chin. “We’re not sure. A while, though.”

“I see.” He unfolded his arms and took a step back. “I’ll be right back.” At that, he turned and walked fully into the house before spreading his wings and flying upwards. His loft could only be accessed by someone who could fly or was very skilled in climbing, which he said was intentional so that thieves couldn’t easily attack. In truth, he probably just didn’t have enough money to buy a staircase when he had the loft installed, and had grown so used to it by now that he wouldn’t have it changed.

While Tali left to go pack a bag, Zelda leaned down and picked up the sword that Mikau had dropped. “Guess I left this last night,” she mused, spinning the blade in her right hand. “Didn’t really miss it, though... you can keep it, if you want.” She held it firmly where the blade was pointing down and extended her arm to Mikau.

He shook his head. _'I don’t know how to use a sword. Not properly, anyway.'_

Zelda blinked at him in confusion before covering her mouth to stifle a giggle. “I am sorry, I didn’t get that,” she confessed. “Was that a no?” He grinned and nodded. She smiled. “I thought so.”

As she lowered the sword back to her side, Tali landed beside Mikau, a large bag and a trident strapped to his back. “I grabbed this for you,” he said to Mikau before pulling out the polearm and handing it over. Reluctantly, he accepted it, clutching it with both hands.

“Don’t you need to pack anything as well?” Zelda asked him. He shook his head and pointed at the scarf he was wearing, reminding her that it was the only thing he really wore. “Oh, right.”

“Are we ready yet?” The maybe-female sheikah asked from behind the princess. Zelda nodded and backed away from the door, allowing for both boys to exit. 

Mikau hadn’t really seen anything other than the strangers when he’d looked past Zelda earlier, but now that he was outside he could see that there was also a covered wagon attatched to two horses, in addition to a horse not tied to anything. Seeing that the three were moving away from the door and towards the group, the sheikah smiled before hopping back onto the front of the carriage, gripping the horse’s ropes. “Ready when you are!” They declared.

The gerudo frowned. “Who are these people?” He asked Zelda, pointing at the zora and rito following her.

“I am Tali,” the crimson avian declared, not waiting for the princess to introduce him. “This is Mikau.” Mikau smiled and waved. In response, the gerudo raised an eyebrow.

“My name’s Inrah,” the sheikah on the carriage piped up. “The tall one is Anvu, and the short one is Vaen. The medium one is Zelda, but you should already know that.”

Tali tilted his head. “We do.” He looked back down at Zelda. “Are we walking, taking the horse, or getting in the wagon with her?”

“Them,” both Zelda and Anvu corrected at the same time.

He coughed into his fist. “My bad.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Inrah replied.

“Unless you want to walk, there’s room for you in the wagon,” Zelda informed the two. “The horse belongs to Anvu. Vaen and I will be in the wagon as well, but it’s not that cramped.” She began walking towards the carriage and motioned for them to follow, which they did.

Grunting, Tali adjusted the bag’s strap on his shoulder. “You know, you never actually told us where we were going,” he observed.

Zelda thought about that. “We were planning on going to Eldin first and working our way west,” she remembered as she stopped by the wagon. “We’ll head to the Village of the Blue Maiden to see if anyone knows anything there before heading to Death Mountain.”

“Knows anything about what?” He asked, stopping as well. “Maybe it would be better if I asked _why_ we were going.”

“Oh!” Zelda exclaimed. “My apologies! We are trying to...” She looked around quickly to see if anyone else was listening. When she was sure that there were no eavesdroppers, she spoke again, but quieter. “We are trying to find the Triforce of Courage.”

At this, Mikau froze. He didn’t know why, but he got a feeling that almost equated dread. It was like something was telling him that it was wrong. The sensation reminded him of how he felt near Lanayru Spring. He didn’t understand it, but he also couldn’t explain what felt like an unreasonable fear. He shook the feeling off and remained silent.

The exchange between the princess and the mechanic continued for a little longer, but he ignored them in favor of crawling into the wagon. The roof was a bit low for him, but when he sat down it wasn’t that much of a problem. He set his trident down to lay against the edge of the wagon wall just as Zelda and Tali began getting in. Behind them was Vaen, who took much less time to get situated thanks to his diminutive, almost childlike size. Through the lone window in the side of the carriage, they could see Anvu get on his horse and begin steering her towards the tunnels up to the top of the crater.

“All good back there?” Inrah called from their position up front.

“Yes!” Zelda replied. “All good!”

Smiling, Inrah began urging the two horses to start moving. They quickly began following Anvu, who had already made some progress away from them. As the wagon rolled ahead, Vaen curled up to become impossibly smaller and situated himself in a corner, perhaps to fall asleep.

Tali unstrapped his bag and threw it unceremoniously on top of the trident. “How dangerous is this mission going to be?” He inquired, looking back at Mikau from the corner of his eye. He never stopped worrying, did he?

Zelda sighed. “We’re not sure,” she admitted. “As long as we don’t encounter any traitors, I think we should be fine...”

Snorting, Tali leaned back against the wall. “Yeah,” he agreed, looking up at the roof of the wagon. “We should be.”


	9. It’s All In Your Head

The sun was starting to set by the time they crossed over into Eldin. Inrah and Anvu were guiding their respective horses through Hyrule Field while having a chat outside the wagon. Vaen was still curled up in the corner, Tali was still leaning against the wall, and Zelda was still sitting in silence. The only one of them who had really moved recently was Mikau, who was currently leaning out of the lone window to try and see the sunset.

Tali shifted in his seat, growing uncomfortable. He considered fishing his clawshot materials out of his bag to continue working on it, but that likely wouldn’t help how tired he was becoming of this ride. “How much longer until we stop for the night?” He asked suddenly, making Mikau nearly bonk his head on the top of the window in surprise.

Zelda flinched as well, but she quickly placed a finger over her mouth to shush Tali. “Vaen’s trying to sleep,” she whispered, glancing over at the smallest teammate.

“No I’m not,” Vaen replied out of the blue, causing Mikau to actually hit his head against the window frame this time. “Great Faries don’t sleep.”

Slowly, Mikau ducked back inside, rubbing the top of his skull. He just couldn’t catch a break. _'You’re a fairy?'_ He signed, suddenly interested.

Vaen unfolded himself and sat up. “Yeah. These aren’t just decoration.” He pointed to the green dragonfly-like wings behind his ears, then frowned. “Well, they are, but they’re real. I’m not wearing hair clips or anything like that.”

As Mikau leaned towards the fairy to get a better look, Zelda furrowed her brow. “If you weren’t sleeping, then what were you doing?”

“Resting.” When both Zelda and Tali gave him unamused looks, he raised his hands defensively. “Hey, there’s a difference between sleeping and resting! Sleeping is physically impossible for fairies. Resting is when we take a break from using our magic to regain energy. We run out of mana pretty quickly away from our fountains, so we have to recharge every chance we get.”

Tali straightened so that he could look over Mikau’s head, but the fairy was still too short. “Where’d you learn sign language?” He inquired, slouching back down. 

Vaen opened his mouth to respond, but didn’t at first. “Hmm.” He tapped his index fingers together, thinking. “There’s a lot that I just know for no particular reason. My guess is, the fairies are granted knowledge by Hylia when we’re created, so that we can be even more helpful.”

“Is that your only goal?” Tali continued, his earlier question to Zelda forgotten. “To be helpful?”

The shorter boy shrugged. “All fairies are created by the Fairy Queen for a specific purpose. Normal fairies, as in the small ones, are each given a goal in life. Once they achieve that goal, they dissolve and their essence is returned to the Queen to make a new fairy. Great Fairies are much more powerful, and our goal is to help the people of Hylia in any way possible. We basically dissolve on a timer, so that every couple of centuries we get new fairies who haven’t depleted any magic yet.”

Intrigued, Zelda scooted closer. “Does that make you immortal?” She asked, eyes wide.

“Uh...” Nervously, he rubbed the back of his neck. “No. We can be killed, just like anyone else. Since our fountains have automatic healing properties, it is probably impossible for us to be killed there, which is one of the reasons why we rarely leave.”

“What are the other reasons?” Tali pressed.

Vaen shrunk back into the corner. “What, is not dying not good enough for you? ... but honestly, most of us aren’t afraid of death. It’s more because if a Great Fairy dies away from their fountain, their essence has no way to return to the Queen. It just kind of... wanders. Wandering magic is bad. Anyone can harvest it, and it often causes anomalies in the world around it.”

Seeing that their fairy expert was getting twitchy, all three of the curious passengers decided to back off and settle into occupying themselves with other things. Mikau returned to the window, Zelda began reading a book, and Tali reverted to doing absolutely nothing. As time passed, the rito began drifting off, his head rolling to the side. He didn’t even notice the buzzing that was beginning to creep into the back of his mind.

_**“Go to the desert.”** _

Tali shot awake, looking around frantically. Zelda was the only one who seemed to notice, and she just blinked at him, confused. “Everything alright?” She asked, worry in her voice.

Trying to play it off as nothing, he rolled his shoulders and looked off to the side. “Yep, I’m good,” he said dismissively. “You know, I think I need to stretch for a bit. I’ll be flying just above the wagon.”

It didn’t appear as if Zelda entirely believed him, but she nodded and returned to reading her book. After making sure that she wouldn’t say anything else, Tali hopped out the back of the carriage, immediately taking flight before he even hit the ground. When he circled back to be a good distance above the wagon, the wind started doing all of the work for him, so he relaxed.

His shadow passed over Mikau, who was still leaning out the window. The zora looked up and waved when he saw who it was. He grinned in response, hoping that his friend would remember that waving was less than convenient in the air. After watching him fly a little longer, Mikau ducked back into the wagon, having done enough sightseeing for the day. Tali sighed, satisfied that he was alone. There was no way that Anvu and Inrah could hear him from this height... right?

“Alright, who are you?” He said under his breath, looking back and forth. “I know you’re here somewhere.”

As expected, no one came into view, but he heard a somewhat sinister chuckle in the back of his head. _**“Do you, though?”**_

Tali practically growled. “I can hear you, can’t I?”

_**“Mmm... perhaps. But who says I’m not a figment of your imagination?”** _

“You did,” he replied without missing a beat. “This morning, when you were yelling at me about how you were real, and that we would meet someday.”

The voice hesitated. _**“Well, I need you to go to the desert,”**_ it demanded, choosing to ignore his comment. Tali didn’t respond, and he could practically feel the stranger’s indignation. 

“Eldin is gorgeous at this time of day,” he noted instead, looking around himself. The cliffs were painted dark reds and oranges by the fading sunlight, but it really wasn’t Tali’s taste. He was just trying to get some reaction from the voice. “You live here?” No response. “You know, it would be a lot easier to have an actual conversation with you if we could meet in person. What’s with these cryptic telepathic visits, anyway?”

 _ **“Stop changing the subject!”**_ It hissed, making no attempt to hide its annoyance. _**“You owe me one, you know.”**_

He frowned. “Since when?”

_**“Since I saved your friend. Remember?”** _

“I...” He stalled, trying to think of a comeback. He really didn’t want to end up indebted to someone he couldn’t even see. “You didn’t save him. He was perfectly capable of waking up on his own.”

_**“Really. Are you sure about that?”** _

“Absolutely! There is an eighty- no, a ninety percent chance he would have been fine.”

 _ **“You little whelp, you don’t even know that,”**_ the voice hissed. _**“Numbers are just an excuse to make you sound smarter than you really are.”**_

“And insults are just a way to make you sound more powerful than you are,” he pointed out, noticing being called a “whelp.”

 _ **“WHY, YOU MAKE ME BEYOND-”**_ The voice cut off on its own, remembering that yelling hadn’t worked last time. He paused, deciding on a new approach. _**“Well. Help me, and I’ll make you more powerful than you could ever imagine.”**_

Tali rolled his eyes. At this point, he was just trying to think of a way to make the voice leave him alone. “You know what? I’ll consider it.”

 _ **“SPLENDID!!!”**_ Tali nearly fell out of the sky at how loud the voice had suddenly become. _**“You make my soul sparkle with joy! You will not regret having me as your ally...”**_

Since he was busy trying to straighten out his flight, it took him a second to realize the voice was waiting for a name. “Tali,” he said, not seeing the harm in sharing this information. “Yours?”

The voice paused for a short time. _**“I am not confined to one name,”**_ they boasted after their intermission. _**“Pick whatever you please. Now, I’ll be seeing you later, Tali...”**_

As the buzzing faded away from his head, Tali wondered if he’d made a huge mistake. Whoever this voice belonged to, they definitely unsettled him. What could they possibly want from the desert? Then again, he only said he’d _consider_ helping them. He didn’t sign a blood pact or anything.

Sighing, he began diving back down towards the wagon in the fading daylight. “Creep,” he muttered under his breath. “How do you feel about being called ‘Gnat’?”

No response came, but that was fine. Tali had reached the limit of how much of “Gnat” he could handle. Just as the sun vanished behind the western horizon, he swooped down to the wagon entrance and carefully landed inside. Now that he could see everyone, none of them appeared to be sleeping, but he had wanted to be cautious. 

“Since you asked earlier, we are planning on stopping soon,” Zelda informed him once he’d sat down. “We’ll reach the Village of the Blue Maiden fairly soon tomorrow, but tonight we can just make camp in the fields. Monsters rarely roam nowadays, and Eldin isn’t known to have thieves.”

“That’s good news.” He settled back into his earlier position. “How long will we be staying in the village?”

“We are definitely staying tomorrow night, but after that it all depends on what we think we can find there.” She closed her book and set it beside herself. “Chances are, we will stay one night and proceed to Death Mountain, then stay there again on the way back. Going to the mountain should only be a day trip, but if something happens we might have to stay a night, so we are keeping our options open.”

Mikau snapped his fingers to get their attention. _'How hot is Death Mountain?'_

Upon seeing how clueless the princess looked, Tali decided to translate. “He wants to know how hot the mountain is,” he said.

“Oh. I don’t know exactly, since I don’t go there that often.” She twisted her mouth, thinking. “In all of my visits, I’ve never seen a zora, so it might be too hot for you, not to mention most of the monsters are fire-based. Zoras are weak to fire and ice, right? Hopefully the village will have some heat resistant clothes for you.”

At the idea of wearing a full outfit, Mikau scrunched his face up. _'I can stay behind,'_ he decided.

“Oh, come on,” Tali complained lightheartedly. “You wanted me to come on this journey with you, and now you’re ditching me when things get a little heated?”

From his bundle in the corner, Vaen tried desperately to contain a giggle at the pun, but failed. Mikau just tilted his head, bemused. _'Do you think I would be fine in the extreme heat?'_ He signed, the joke going right over his head.

Tali huffed, not wanting to explain it. “Eh, who knows. We’ll just have to see if there’s anything at the village to help you.”

Mikau shrugged. _'I guess.'_

After that, their journey continued in silence as they neared their destination for the night. By the time they stopped, the stars were fully out, and Mikau opted to sleep outside to go stargazing. Anvu warned him that some monsters might still be around and attack him, but he seemed to take that as a personal challenge and decided to stay outside without a weapon. Once everyone realized that they weren’t about to change his mind, they left him be and found various spots in the wagon to sleep. Vaen volunteered to stay up for first watch, and thus, they all settled in for a quiet night ahead.

* * *

All was silent in the barracks of the Knights of Hyrule. Moonbeams trickled through the small windows, illuminating the sleeping forms of all of the brave souls who were training to defend Hyrule. After all of the official knights had been dismissed at various points in the past week, their training had become much more intense, so that they would be capable of defending the royal family sooner and fill in the gaps. Thus, it was no surprise that they were all out cold. That was about to change.

One trainee, a hylian male who couldn’t be older than twenty, was sleeping in a rather stiff position on his back. His bed was pushed as far away from the windows as possible, where no light could reach him. As with all of the other soldiers-in-training, he was far from awake, meaning he didn’t see the young boy perched on the edge of his bed until it was too late.

The child jumped from the footboard onto the actual bed, remaining in a squatting position. The knight’s only reaction to this was a small grunt. Unsatisfied, the boy sat down firmly on the mattress, took a deep breath, and yelled, “WAKE UP!!!”

Surprisingly, the only knight who even had the slightest reaction to this was the one on that same bed. He jackknifed up, blonde hair falling all over the left half of his face, and held up his fists. It didn’t take him long to adjust to the darkness and realize that there was a hylian child watching him expectantly. Recognizing the boy, he groaned and flopped back down on the mattress.

“I thought we agreed that you would only wake me up if there was an emergency,” he said quietly so that the other soldiers wouldn’t hear him. “Funnily enough, I don’t smell fire or hear screams, so this better be good.”

The kid wrinkled his nose. “For a moment there, it almost sounded like you weren’t happy to see me,” he noticed. Unlike the knight, he made no effort to lower his voice, but no one seemed to stir.

Sighing, the older boy sat up again, but slower this time. “Yeah, okay,” he whispered. “How nice of you to finally drop back in. But did it have to be at whatever goddess forsaken hour it is? And why are you a child?”

“It unsettles you, doesn’t it?” The younger one asked, brushing a stray tuft of hair out of his face. It was the exact same color as the knight’s. “Good, because that tells you I have something important to say.”

“Fair enough.” The knight folded his arms over his lap and crossed his legs. “Let’s hear it.”

“The princess is trying to piece the triforce back together.”

At first, the tired blonde just stared at him, uncomprehendingly. Finally, his eyes narrowed. “ _What?_ ”

The child nodded. “You heard me. After the whole traitors fiasco, she thinks it’s the only way to ensure that she finds the Hero. To be fair, she’s not wrong, but-”

“That’s stupid!” Suddenly angry, the young man pounded his fists against his knees. “Doesn’t she know that the cycle will restart? It was broken for a reason - _someone_ had to record that!”

“Shush!” His smaller companion looked around warily. “They might hear you!”

They both turned on the bed to check if anyone else had been disturbed. Luckily, no one else seemed awake. Just to be sure, they waited for a couple of minutes in silence before facing each other again.

Thinking, the young boy placed his hands on his hips. “See, that’s what’s tripping me up. I thought that the triforce being broken would break Demise’s curse as well, since the Spirit of the Hero more or less doesn’t fully exist, but there is a darkness rising again. You of all people should be able to sense that.” When he didn’t receive a response, he continued. “Somehow, I think he was able to escape from his seal, and he forced reincarnation upon himself. You know, like Hylia did.”

The knight scowled. “You really think Ganon can escape the Four Sword?”

“I... I hope not.” Nervously, the child tugged on his bangs. “But if he did, then he’s probably already back, and the only way to defeat him is with the triforce. At least, he’s never been defeated without Courage before.”

“Hold on a second. Are you saying that we need to help them _put it back together_?”

He bit the inside of his cheek. “Not necessarily. However, it is definitely a possibility.” Clearly uncertain, he drummed his fingers on the bed as he thought. “I propose that you try to join the princess’ team that searching for the triforce, just in case. We can check up on the Four Sword along the way. If nothing is wrong, then we don’t have anything to worry about. Remember, there’s no way they’re going to get the triforce without our help.”

The young man frowned. “But what if you’re right? If he’s free...” He looked down at his hands, not planning on finishing his sentence.

Carefully, the small boy scooted closer and tilted his head up to look him in the eye. “You’re the hero now,” he said firmly. “Now is your chance to start acting like it.”

With a sigh, the knight sat up straighter. “I’ll see what I can do tomorrow,” he resolved. Pleased, the child nodded and slid off of the bed, allowing for its occupant to lie down and go back to sleep.

Right before he could, the young boy spoke again. “Hey, Link?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t... don’t get yourself killed.”

Link smiled. “I will try my best.”

The boy returned the expression. “I’ll come back soon,” he promised. The knight nodded and lay down, closing his eyes. A moment later, he opened them to try and see the child one last time, but he was already gone. The only sign that anything had once stood there was a lone green wisp. With a half smile, Link rolled over onto his back again and quickly fell asleep, leaving the barracks in silence once more.


	10. Village of the Blue Maiden

The Village of the Blue Maiden was an interesting settlement. Built adjacent to Eldin Spring, the village consisted mostly of hylians, with a couple of sheikah and gorons as well. Over the past few centuries, it had become strangely lush compared to the rest of the province. Legends say that after the light spirits’ restoration following the Twilight Invasion, the areas around all of the springs experienced unforeseen prosperity, and it was the most noticeable in the previously small settlement. It used to be known as New Kakariko, but after the sheikah had recovered from the brink of extinction, many of them returned to their old hidden village and took the name back with them. Now, the newer settlement was renamed to be the Village of the Blue Maiden, to honor one of the traditional guardians of Hyrule. Residents would often refer to it as simply the Blue Village.

The sun hadn’t even reached its zenith by the time Princess Zelda and her motley crew arrived at the village. They came in through the south entrance, by the spring. When they stopped inside the gate, Inrah set the reigns down to the horses they had been guiding and leaned back to speak with those still inside the wagon.

“Do we have any particular sleeping arrangements in mind?” They asked as Anvu came to a halt as well. “Because... if we didn’t want to pay for rooms at the Elde Inn for all of us, my parents live here, so I’m sure they would let some of you stay at their house...”

Noticing the way they trailed off, Vaen shuffled to be closer to the opening that Inrah was speaking through. “Is something wrong?”

Hastily, they shook their head. “No, not at all! I was just thinking... you know, maybe some of us should wear disguises. The princess and Anvu are both recognizable. I visit here sometimes, so I won’t be suspicious, and I doubt anyone even knows who you are.” They gestured towards Mikau, Tali, and Vaen, who were all sitting on the same side of the wagon. “Although fairies aren’t really common, so maybe you should disguise yourself anyway.”

Vaen’s winglets twitched. “I could do a magical disguise, so that I look like a normal human, but that would constantly drain my mana. It’d be more practical if there was a fairy fountain nearby. I don’t think there is, so maybe a cloak will do.”

“There is a light spirit spring less than fifteen feet away from us,” Tali pointed out dryly, looking over his shoulder and out the window. “I’m sure you can manage.”

“Oh.” Vaen smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, that’ll do the trick.”

As everyone else in the wagon watched, Vaen began to glow lilac, which became progressively brighter until no one could look at him anymore. When the light faded, sitting in Vaen’s place was a hylian boy with the same round features, but red hair and freckles dotting his face. He looked slightly less pale, and he lacked the wings behind his ears. Unfortunately, his disguise was a little dubious since he was still wearing the same clothes as before.

Out of everyone watching, Zelda seemed the least impressed, as if she’d seen something like that before. “Can you disguise other people with illusions?” She wondered, looking past Tali to see Anvu on the other side of the window.

The fairy frowned. “Theoretically? It’s shapeshifting, not an illusion, so it’s a bit painful if you’ve never experienced it before. I could do it, but the spell would break if we separated, not to mention what it would do to my magic reserves.”

This surprised Zelda a little. “I didn’t know you could shapeshift,” she said. “Can all fairies do that?”

“More or less. All Great Fairies can do specific shifts, but as the fairy of magic I can do additional forms and affect others as well.”

Anvu leaned down to have his head level with the window, allowing for everyone inside to see him. “Does that previous statement of yours mean Zelda and I are on our own for disguises?”

“Unless you guys just have infinite green potions around, I don’t think I can shift all three of us.”

For some reason, that statement seemed to amuse Zelda, who placed a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling. When she saw everyone giving her strange looks, she waved her hand dismissively. “Sorry, I was just reminded of something. Regardless, I know some illusion magic, so I will be fine. Anvu... hmm. How do you feel about cross dressing?”

The gerudo scowled, but quickly got over himself. “I’ll be fine, I guess. Just don’t make me wear something ridiculous.”

* * *

After Mikau, Tali, and Inrah had been sent on a little shopping trip, everyone was decked out in inconspicuous clothes. The rito and zora didn’t change, but Vaen was now wearing a typical hylian outfit as opposed to his previous formal garb. Anvu was dressed as a gerudo female, since hylian clothes were too small for him, and Mikau braided his hair to complete his new look (why did a _zora_ know how to braid hair?). Inrah and Zelda may have stood out as abnormal, now wearing their stealth armor, but Inrah said that it was what they usually wore on their visits. No one should give them any trouble over it. To try and keep her identity a secret, Zelda asked to be referred to as Sikhe during their visit, and cast an illusion to make her hair completely white.

Vaen tugged at the collar of the hylian cloak he was wearing. “Are all of your clothes this itchy?” He complained, shifting within his new garments.

“At least you’re not a vai,” Anvu pointed out, adjusting the length of his sleeves. They were technically optional, but he insisted on keeping his arms covered. “Not that you were the most masculine of men to begin with. I think Inrah is more manly than you.”

From their perch on the wagon’s jockey box, Inrah grinned. “Why, thank you, but that’s not saying much when you’re comparing me to a fairy.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” Vaen lifted his brown hood to cover his now orange hair. “You both should become comedians some day.”

Leaning on the side of the carriage, Zelda smiled. “Alright, I think that’s enough bickering for now.” She pushed herself back into a standing position and took a few steps towards the trio. “Inrah, did you say something earlier about us staying with your parents?”

Their grin faded. “I... yes, I did. They live pretty close to the center of the village. It’s a pretty small house, so I doubt we can all stay... at most, four of us might be able to cram in there.”

Tali, who had been standing out of the way with Mikau, stepped forward and folded his wings. “Since you apparently seem to know everything about this place, who should stay where?”

“You and I go to the inn,” Inrah said almost instantly. “Everyone else can fit at my parents, although they might recognize you, Zelda- I mean, Sikhe.”

Zelda considered that. “We’ve met once or twice. Even if they do, I doubt it will be a problem. They’re not our enemies. I think.”

Peeking out from beneath his hood, Vaen tried to look up at everyone around him, since they were all taller than himself. “Why aren’t you staying with your own parents?” He asked, confused.

Inrah shifted in their seat, looking away. “We... aren’t on the best terms, I guess. On that topic, when you guys go to get settled in, maybe it’s better if you don’t mention that I’m in town.”

The princess blinked. “Oh. In that case, we could all just stay at the inn instead of your parents’ place.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” They shook their head. “It’d be a pointless waste of money. If we plan on doing anything today, you should probably go ahead and set up camp there so that we can get to work.”

She hesitated, but nodded. “I understand. Come on, you three. We can get set up.” She snatched her bag from the back of the wagon and began walking. Anvu quickly followed with his own luggage, but the other two paused. Briefly, Vaen watched Inrah for anything more, but settled on walking away when they did nothing. Mikau signed something to Tali before giving him a hug and following.

Once everyone was a good distance away, Inrah picked the reigns back up. “Can you guide Anvu’s horse?” They asked the one person remaining as their own equines began walking. “We’ve got to tie them up by the inn.”

Carefully, Tali grasped the reigns to the lone horse and trailed after the wagon, which was now moving. He’d never actually handled a horse before, but this didn’t seem so bad. It was a remarkably large beast, probably bred to hold large people such as the gerudo, which meant he could ride it easily. Not that he wanted to, but... he wanted to. He just wasn’t sure how to go about that. In addition, Anvu likely wouldn’t be too happy if he accidentally damaged it. Or... him?

They reached the inn at the center of town in very little time and made short work of tying up their horses. There were posts in front of the inn for single horses, but Inrah had to take the carriage to an area in the back. When they returned to the front entrance, Tali was waiting for them, leaning on the wall beside the door.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” he began as they approached, “why’d you volunteer me out of staying with your parents? You didn’t even hesitate when asked who should stay where. Not that I’m complaining, I’m just curious.”

Inrah stopped beside him and looked down at the ground. “You want to know the truth?”

Seeing the way their face darkened, he sighed. “Probably not,” he decided, pushing himself off the wall. “Looks like it’s none of my business. Let’s just go ahead and get our rooms. Or room, I’m not picky.”

Before he could open the door, Inrah held a hand up. “No, I should probably tell you,” they said forlornly. “It’s because my parents... in short, they suck.”

To their surprise, Tali barked a laugh. “I’ll admit, that’s not what I was expecting to hear.”

They managed a bittersweet chuckle. “Yeah. To put it bluntly, they’re racist, misgendering freaks who think everyone is defined by how they were born and who they were born to.”

He nodded. “I get that. To be fair, there’s actually a lot of people in Hyrule who don’t take kindly to us rito. They say we, ahem, ‘came down from the sky to steal land and resources, and have given nothing in return.’ Heard that one once or twice.”

“Well, that’s... unfortunate.” Inrah placed their hands on their hips. “I was hoping my parents were a rare exception to the norm.”

“They might be,” he pointed out with a shrug. “I could just have the worst luck in the world and run into all the wrong people. I’ve been told I can be less than agreeable at times, so maybe they just lash out at my personality.”

They delayed in their response, still not meeting his eyes. He leaned to the side slightly to try and be closer to their height. “Something wrong?”

Snapping out of whatever train of thought they’d been following, Inrah jerked back upright, tense, before deflating again. “No, sorry. I was just thinking... yeah, my parents do suck at times. The way they would treat you is unacceptable.”

“And you,” Tali reminded them, recalling the mention of ‘misgendering’ in their earlier statement.

They flinched, but hastily kept going. “That being said, they’re not... the worst, I guess? I mean, I’ve been making them sound absolutely horrible, but... they try. Sometimes. They can be stubborn and refuse to stop calling me their daughter, but they’re also the people who raised me, and did everything they could for me when I was growing up. I don’t want to sound like I don’t appreciate that. I’m thankful for them... I think. Is... is that wrong?”

As they spoke, Tali noticed that they’d wrapped their arms around their torso and began shrinking inward, not unlike Vaen earlier. It was reminiscent of something Mikau would do when he was feeling full of shame, often for a mistake that wasn’t even his own. He sighed, realizing that they were probably doing the same thing.

“Hey.” He tapped their shoulder to make them look up at him, like Mikau did with him. “Whatever your parents do or say, it’s not your fault. And it’s natural for you to be inclined to like them. They are your parents, right?” Slowly, the sheikah nodded. “Yet just because you’re family doesn’t mean that everything they do is because of you, and vice versa. You are your own person. Don’t let others before you define who you are.”

They blinked at him, mulling over his words, and nodded again. Silently, they turned to the door and placed their hand on the doorknob. Instead of opening it, they looked back at Tali from the corner of their eye. “Thank you. If you don’t mind me asking... what are your parents like?”

“Virtuous to a fault,” he said, stepping away from the doorway. “They had the kind of unrelenting compassion that can get yourself killed.”

Hearing the subtle shift in his tone, Inrah looked back at the door and pursed their lips. “I’m sorry,” they said quietly before pushing it open and walking inside. 

Tali didn’t follow at first, watching them disappear inside the inn. He’d never really had a conversation like that with someone before. Since they were practically brothers, he and Mikau were very open with each other, but there was very little about one that the other didn’t already know. Hearing someone else be so forthcoming to a near stranger was... slightly innerving. Was that... trust? No, it couldn’t be; they said from the beginning that it was out of necessity. They gave information that they thought he needed to know, and it was just a conversation that started from there. That was all.

But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe they were someone who actually did trust him, from what little they knew of each other. If that was the case, then he could admit, it was nice to have someone who trusted you as more than a business call.

He was pulled away from his thoughts when he peeked into the doorway and saw Inrah motioning for him to come in. At this moment, those thoughts could wait. He nodded to them in acknowledgement and walked inside, trying to remain in his usual stone mask. Whatever inkling of friendship he’d thought he’d seen would be revisited another time. For now, he had other important matters to attend to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read this chapter when it was first released, it might look a bit different. I edited what Tali said to Inrah at the end because the original version felt a bit off, and frankly wrong.


	11. Ancient Blades

Inrah’s parents seemed nice enough, Mikau decided. Their names were Banin and Pera, and Inrah was their only child. When the quartet had come to their door, asking if they could stay for at least one night, they happily accepted them. The group had then quickly set up inside. Zelda got Inrah’s old room and bed to herself, since she was the only girl (and she was the princess, but no one said that aloud), and Vaen took the couch. Mikau and Anvu were both perfectly content with this, considering they were too tall to fit comfortably on either. They just stole all of the spare pillows in the house and made makeshift mattresses for themselves in Banin’s personal library. The gerudo managed to abscond with one of the couch’s cushions, putting his skills in thievery to work when Vaen’s back was turned, but the fairy made no attempt to retrieve it. He was small, and had no qualms about curling up on one edge of the seat to sleep.

Now, Zelda and Vaen were both putting their disguises to the test while having a little chat with their hosts around the dinner table, asking various questions about past heroes who had been through the Blue Village. Apparently, the plan was to find the paths the New Hero of the Four Sword took on his journey in hopes of locating where the triforce pieces may have scattered. Their current theory was that Courage would naturally cling to places that the hero had visited in life, since they were familiar to it. In truth, they more hoped that was the case rather than believed. No one wanted to admit that they really had no idea where to go.

Mikau watched them converse in silence, sitting on the side of the couch without a cushion. The other half of the seat was taken by Anvu, who was currently studying a map of the Eldin province and marking various points with a pen. Every once in a while, he would tune in on the conversation transpiring in the adjacent room, and then circle some new location on his parchment. It all looked like a mess to Mikau, but truth be told, he wasn’t the greatest at reading maps even when they weren’t littered with annotations.

In the middle of eavesdropping, Anvu suddenly stood up, tucked his map into a pouch on his hip, and began heading for the room they would be sleeping in. When he returned, he held two peculiar weapons. They looked almost like swords, but the oddly shaped blades were made of a flat, electric blue substance that was slightly translucent. Seeing Mikau’s look of fear and confusion, he clicked something on the bases of both of them, and the blade vanished from existence with a soft _pop_. “They’e swords,” he explained as he passed the zora. “Thought I might want to touch up on my skills in case anything goes awry. If they need me, I’ll be right behind the house.”

Mikau watched him leave without making a noise. Once he was sure that the bard wasn’t coming back right now, he scrambled over onto the opposite side of the couch. No point in sitting without a cushion if the other one wasn’t claimed. However, a few seconds after securing his new seat, he realized that he actually wasn’t that interested in listening to the nearby chatter. It made sense to him, but it was by no means entertaining, and he couldn’t think of anything interesting that he could potentially contribute. Even if he was invested in the outcome of the conversation, they would fill him and the others in once they were done, so there wasn’t any reason for him to be present throughout the entire talk. Continuing to sit here and do nothing but listen would be a waste of time. Growing bored, he jumped off of the couch and jogged towards the front door to follow Anvu.

When he found the gerudo, he remained silent at first. He was a bit curious as to how someone would fight with two swords. He had never been formally instructed on how to fight with any weapon, but he’d taught himself to use a trident, and he and Tali would often practice hand to hand combat with each other. The few times he had seen someone even hold a sword, they only wielded a single blade. Even in his bizarre dreams, everyone used at most one sword, except for the time he dreamt he fought some mechanical aberration with six arms and a scimitar in each hand. That was a weird one.

Anvu would first get into a ready stance, with one foot in front of the other and his swords positioned around his head, like the open beak of some colossal bird. Then, he would move his back foot forward and quickly swing a blade. Sometimes this move was followed by him snapping back into his previous position, and sometimes he would follow it with a spin attack. All of his moves were executed with impressive speed. In addition, the gerudo vai clothes really did look like they helped his mobility. After practicing those slashes and poses for a fair amount of time, he moved on to other, more advanced strikes. His new attack pattern was faster and chaotic, making it harder to follow along. Watching him practice, Mikau realized that this bard was a lot more terrifying than he had originally assumed.

During one of his spinning slashes, Anvu happened to look up and see his spectator, causing himself to stumble in surprise. Hurriedly, he straightened up and switched off his blades. “Do they need me already?” He asked, brushing his red hair away from the right side of his face. It fell right back into position the moment he took his hand away. Interestingly, after that nonstop training with himself, he didn’t look even remotely tired.

Mikau shook his head. _'No, I’m just watching,'_ he signed. Anvu’s raised eyebrows told him that the message didn’t make it across, but he didn’t try again. Most hylians couldn’t understand their own sign language, so it was a stretch to expect a gerudo to recognize the sigils.

After seeing that Mikau wasn’t nodding, Anvu continued talking. “Alright. So are you just going to stand by, or do you actually want to join?” When he didn’t receive another attempt at a response, he crossed his arms. “I’m asking if you wanted to train with me, in case you didn’t catch that.”

The offer caught Mikau a little off guard. He hadn’t expected to be practicing as well, meaning he didn’t bring his trident, and fighting with only his fists sounded like a horrible idea in this situation. Anvu clearly wouldn't understand any of his signs, so he tried to exhibit his lack of weaponry by spreading his arms and gesturing to all of the nothing he had equipped. It took him a second, but Anvu seemed to get the general idea.

“Don’t worry about it,” Anvu said, holding one of the unassuming hilts out to the zora. “You can borrow one of mine. I mean, they’re technically Inrah’s, but they gave them to me for this little adventure we’re on. It’s been a while since I’ve trained with only one sword, so this will be a nice refresher.”

Cautious of the strange weapon, Mikau slowly reached out and grabbed the hilt, careful to avoid the button. Once the sword was out of his grasp, Anvu stepped back and activated the one he still had. The blue blade flickered on with an alien humming noise. Mikau watched closely before doing the same with his. Hearing the odd sounds so close startled him, but he held firmly onto the sword. Just to be on the safe side, he kept it as far away from his face as possible as he tried to take in every detail about it. It was long and thin, potentially meant to be a hand-and-a-half sword for humans, but to him it was more like a short sword. Multiple circular holes dotted the incredibly thin blade. The edge wasn’t straight, instead taking on a more geometric pattern that made no sense.

Anvu studied his opponent’s stance for a few moments before his mouth curved into a half grin. “You have no idea how to use a sword, do you?” He realized, observing Mikau’s poor form. The zora shook his head, and he sighed, although a laugh tried to come out at the same time. “Well, it’s a good thing to know, so I can go ahead and try to teach you the basics.”

Once the unexpected lesson began, Mikau lost track of time. Anvu spent the first portion of the impromptu class showing him how to properly stand and hold the sword, although a miscommunication error caused it to last longer than it probably should have. Mikau would always grip the sword in his left hand, and his teacher insisted that it was better to start off training with your dominant side. It took an embarrassingly long time for Anvu to realize that his pupil was left handed. After that slight bump in the road, the training session went by rather smoothly, with Mikau being a fast learner. By the time they decided that was enough for one day, the sun was considerably closer to the edge of the horizon. Anvu reclaimed both of the swords and deactivated them before heading back around to the front of the house, Mikau close on his tail.

As it happened, the two walked inside just in time to bump into Vaen, who had been attempting to go outside. “Watch it!” He warned, but his voice was as unthreatening as it could be. “Hey, I was just about to go looking for you two, now that dinner’s ready. What have you been up to?”

“Training,” Anvu said simply, brushing right past the fairy in disguise to put the swords away in the library. Mikau took a little more care in moving forward, giving Vaen a wide berth, before quickly running over to the couch and plopping down on the cushioned seat. When Anvu reappeared in the central room, he immediately noticed that the good seat was taken and resigned himself to claiming the cushionless side. 

Vaen watched them take their seats from the sidelines, frowning. “You know you’ll still have to get up and get your food, right?” He wondered, glancing towards the kitchen. Instantly, both of the characters on the couch shot to their feet and bolted towards where dinner was being served, apparently deciding to make a competition out of racing for the cushion. Naturally, Vaen took the seat for himself while they were both gone. He didn’t have to worry about it being stolen when he might have been away; a Great Fairy never had to eat, after all.

In the kitchen, Zelda was leaning on one of the cabinets and talking to Pera when Anvu and Mikau arrived. “Are you sure you’re okay with us staying?” She asked, her hands gripping the edge of the countertop. “We can just book rooms at the Elde Inn if you change your mind.”

“Oh, nonsense,” she sheikah woman said, serving herself some of the dinner that she had made. “A friend to our daughter is a friend to us. It’s a shame that she wasn’t able to come with you all on this little journey of yours; it’s been a while since she visited.”

Listening to the conversation while he waited to get his own meal, Mikau frowned. _'Daughter?'_ He asked, confused. Pera had her back turned to him, so she didn’t see his question, and Zelda evidently had no idea what he said. Anvu, on the other hand, had the same uncomprehending look on his face for a split second before seemingly remembering something. Subtly, he turned to Mikau and shook his head, guessing that the exact same thought about Pera’s choice of words had crossed both of their minds. His message was clear: whatever that was about, it was a conversation for another time. Unsatisfied, Mikau bit the inside of his cheek, fully intending to revisit that question later.

When everybody who needed food had filled their plate, they returned to the living room, since the table didn’t have enough chairs for all of them. Vaen’s disappointment was obvious when neither of the boys reacted to him stealing their seat. Both of them looked like they were busy thinking of something else, but he didn’t press. He decided to just be satisfied that no one had challenged him for the throne. Pera sat cross-legged on the floor with Anvu, Mikau returned to the empty side of the couch, and Zelda opted to remain standing. Banin returned from the walk that Anvu and Mikau didn’t even know he’d gone on, and he sat next to his wife.

By the time everyone had completed their meals, the sun was starting to dip below the western horizon, and people began going off to their separate rooms. Mikau suspected that Vaen had started to rest long ago, since he was curled up into a tiny ball and never participated in any of the discussions over dinner. Zelda was the first to actually leave, and Banin and Pera soon followed. With no one left to talk to, now that Mikau’s translator was making himself unavailable, Anvu headed off to the library to go to bed. Briefly, Mikau considered taking a walk and finding the inn so that he could check on Tali, but that wouldn’t work out. The innkeeper probably didn’t know sign, and he wouldn’t be able to find Tali’s room otherwise. Actually, he still had that conversation he wanted to pursue with Anvu, so maybe he should catch his roommate before he fell asleep. He nodded to himself and followed the bard’s path into the library.

Anvu was already lying prostrate on his cobbled together mattress, stiff as a board, by the time Mikau walked in. His right hand was under his pillow while his left was by his side. As Mikau stepped into the room, Anvu noticed and rolled onto his right side to watch the zora. Perfect, as it happened, since he needed to be facing him to see his signs.

Hoping that Anvu remembered their brief interaction earlier, Mikau repeated the sign he had given in the kitchen. _'Daughter?'_

Blinking, Anvu tried to figure out what was being said, before recognizing the sign. He sighed as Mikau crumpled down onto his own bed, sitting with his knees pulled close to his chin. “It means daughter, doesn’t it?” He said. Mikau nodded. “Inrah... they don’t really get along with their parents. Pera and Banin look nice, but never acknowledge Inrah for who they are. They don’t talk about it much... and I don’t ask. But I know that their parents don’t give them the respect they deserve.”

From a few feet away, Mikau wrapped an arm around his folded legs. _'Why?'_ He asked with his free hand, making the sign by his head. When Anvu did not understand, he repeated the sign, but also mouthed the word. _'Why?'_

Anvu’s eyes lingered on where Mikau’s hand hovered, trying to commit the sign to memory. “Not everyone follows the destiny that was set out for them at birth,” he answered quietly. “But some people just can’t understand that reality.” Before Mikau could question him further, the bard rolled over so that his back faced his roommate. “Goodnight, Mikau.”

Mikau sat still for a few moments before lying down on his own mattress. Somehow, he felt like he knew even less than he did when the conversation had started. He wasn’t even sure if they were still talking about Inrah at this point. Resigned to his disquietude, he rolled over to face the wall as well, hoping that sleep would take him soon. _'Goodnight, Anvu.'_

* * *

_The Four Sword has the power to create three identical copies of its wielder's soul... it can also seal evil inside itself, though this seal will seemingly weaken as time passes... the power to repel evil must be restored by the Force Gems... only the Seven Maidens know the true location of the Four Sword Sanctuary..._

Irritated, Link closed the book he was currently reading and tossed it to the edge of his bed in one fluid motion. There seemed to be just short of a thousand contradictory accounts on the exact facts and abilities of the Four Sword, yet they couldn’t come to a conclusive answer on whether or not an entity sealed inside could break free of his own accord. During the Force Era, the demon Vaati supposedly escaped without the sword being drawn, but that was based on the account of two witnesses who both lost consciousness during the event, and thus they could not confirm nor deny what they saw as being the whole truth. Last time the sword was used, the enchantment was instead shattered prematurely when the last Hero of the Four Sword drew the blade himself, freeing Vaati into Hyrule before he could attempt to break out on his own. A stupid mistake, and it was fully possible that something similar had transpired to set Ganon loose, although it was worth noting that the last hero didn’t take the sword of his own accord. There may have been a little bit of coercion involved. Either way, it meant that no one in history had seen what would happen if the seal finally snapped. Better yet, even if they did, the facts wouldn’t be accurate to the current situation. Vaati was long dead; now they were dealing with Ganon.

“Doing a little light reading in the middle of the night?” Link whipped around to face the startlingly nearby voice, already in a defensive position, but froze when he saw who is was. A young man, about his age, was sitting with his legs hanging off the side of the bed, leaning back on his arms behind him. Blonde hair hung over the right side of his face, resting just high enough to leave both of his light blue eyes visible. Despite the late hour, the newcomer was dressed in the full armor of the captain of the guard rather than some sort of pajamas. While still regal, his clothes were a bit outdated; modern sets of armor had slightly revised etchings, and the royal family had now established blue as their official color, meaning his dark red cape was no longer customary.

Slowly, Link sat up straighter and crossed his arms, trying to make as little noise as possible. “Two nights in a row?” He whispered, raising his eyebrows. “Can’t tell if Hyrule is in mortal peril, or I’m just really lucky.”

The hylian beside him smiled weakly. “Maybe both,” he admitted, uncertainty written all over his face. “At the very least, nothing has taken a drastic turn for the worst over the past day.”

“Well, that’s certainly something.” Link paused briefly to take in the other young man’s appearance. “Can’t be that bad if you took the time to dress casually. This is casual wear for you, right?”

Rolling his eyes, his companion leaned back even farther to be propped up on his elbows. “If this is about me being older this time, then yes. You know I actually prefer being the same age as you. Last time, I just had to make it clear that what I had to say was important.”

Link flopped onto his back and closed his eyes, folding his legs to avoid hitting the other person on the bed. “Visiting me isn’t important?”

He could hear the captain snort. “Hey, you’re the one who got mad at me last time.”

Cracking one eye open, Link looked up at him. “You know I don’t like having a rude awakening. Not the greatest memories, might I remind you. And on a slightly different topic, why are you here, anyway?”

“Ah... if you don’t mind, I think I’ll be staying here for a while. As in, with you. I’ve decided that there’s very little that I can do for Hyrule’s current predicament. My time would be better spent traveling with you and helping you on your journey to find the Four Sword and the triforce... unless you don’t want me around.”

Link shot upright, causing the other person to jump back up into a sitting position. “Of course I want you around!” He said with a grin, draping his right arm across his friend’s shoulders. He was immediately shushed, but continued, albeit quieter. “You and me, together against the world! Just like old times, eh?”

The caped man hesitated. Instead of responding, he looked over at the book Link had tossed earlier. “What’s that?”

While Link did notice they way he avoided his comment, he didn’t pursue it. “Some history book about the Four Sword,” he explained, picking it up with his free hand. “Was trying to see if you were right about Ganon potentially breaking free.”

His companion looked over at him expectantly. “And?”

“Nothing.” He dropped the book unceremoniously onto his lap. “There’s a rumor that Vaati escaped once upon a time, but the two witnesses also say that the sword was slightly askew in its pedestal, as if it had been partially drawn. Even if he escaped with a little bit of help, we should also consider that Ganon is much more powerful...”

“Meaning he can do what the wind mage couldn’t,” the captain finished. When Link didn’t deny it, he pulled on a loose strand of hair, thinking. “If it’s so unclear, we definitely need to check the sword, as soon as possible. Do you have a plan on how to do that yet?”

“Eh, enough of one. You and I both know I can rise through the ranks with ease; I’ve just been holding back. Once I become a captain, convincing Impa to send me to the princess as extra protection shouldn’t be that hard.”

The young man beside him politely refrained from scoffing. “If you were older than twenty, I might believe you. No one becomes a captain that young.”

Link raised his eyebrows in doubt. “No one?”

“Well...” He contnued playing with his tuft of his hair as a nervous tic. “I’m a special case.”

“That’s an understatement.” After removing his arm from the other man’s shoulders, Link cracked his knuckles. “But I’m a special case, too, as I’m sure you remember. Still, looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. You got any plans in the meantime, or are you just going to be my shadow?”

The captain took a deep breath before responding. “I was thinking that I might actually be your partner for a bit. That way, I can give advice without using you as a medium, and... in reality, it’s been far too long since I’ve talked to someone new. So now, we can both formally work together. No more shadows.”

This suggestion seemed to take Link by surprise. “You...” Slowly, a grin began to spread across his face. “Well then, I guess we’ll need to find a name for you, huh?”

Smiling, the other man nodded. “I was thinking I’d just go by Val,” he offered. “As a nickname.”

Link frowned and crossed his arms. “Seriously? All of the names in Hyrule to choose from, and you go with ‘Val’? That doesn’t even sound real.”

Val smirked. “Yeah, that’s rich, coming from a guy named-” 

“Alright, alright, you win. Val it is.” Link waved his hands in mild exasperation. “Don’t mind little old me, just making apparently dumb suggestions.”

Still amused, Val returned to leaning back on his hands. “I think it’ll be a nice change, though. A new chance to prove ourselves.”

Link rolled his eyes. “You’ve done a fine job of proving yourself in the past, Captain.”

“That’s not what I meant.” His partner bumped shoulders with him. “I mean, now we can prove what the two of us can do as a duo, where we aren’t limited to one being in the lead while the other whispers from the background.”

Link hesitated. “It’s a good idea,” he finally decided, although giving a compliment seemed to physically pain him. “But from now on, we do everything together, as equals.” He extended his left hand for the other to shake. “Deal?”

Val didn’t hesitate before taking the hand and shaking it. “Absolutely.”

For a moment, Link paused, their hands still clasped together. “I’ll think of a better plan in the morning, if I must,” he resolved, hesitantly taking his hand away. “Unlike you, I need to sleep in the meantime. Unfortunately.”

The captain smiled softly. “See you in the morning, then.”

“Yeah.”

Val stood up, his feet soundlessly landing on the floor of the barracks. Now that his bed was clear, Link was able to lie down fully, folding his hands over his stomach. He stared wordlessly at the bunk above him, but without looking, he could tell that the captain was already gone. He wanted to sleep, but so much had changed for him in just one conversation.

_A new chance to prove ourselves. From now on, we do everything together. Equals._

_No more shadows._

This time, this chance, it would be different. He knew that. 

He just hoped that was a good thing.


	12. Ascending the Mountain

Despite how much the royal court had tried to create a proper princess, Zelda seemed to fall short at almost every opportunity.

For one, she hated politics. They didn’t confuse her terribly, but they bored her to death, and she would much rather learn to be a warrior than the pretty figurehead everyone tried to mold her into. Really, if they wanted to teach her of the affairs of her kingdom, why not let her participate in them? She was clever enough to follow along with every meeting between her father and his advisors, yet any say of hers was “politely” ignored. To be fair, she was only eighteen, but they could at least _act_ like they considered her ideas. She also got the feeling that they would listen just as much once she was older. The only person who regularly paid attention to her suggestions was the king, who was actually quite interested in what she had to say, but his advisors almost always shot her down as too young and inexperienced. If that was the reaction she would get every time she tried to become interested in politics, why even bother?

Second of all, she wasn’t very good at following the rules, particularly when it came to her inevitable future of an arranged marriage. The king’s confidantes apparently thought the most important part of Zelda’s future would be marrying a husband of high status and making royal heirs. She didn’t see why that meant she couldn’t train with Impa, but they said if she demoted herself to being a mere soldier instead of a princess, then she would never be coronated as the ruler of Hyrule, instead becoming a simple consort. The advisors’ most recurring argument against her was that even if she didn’t want to be the queen, she would have to eventually marry a man (“because Hylia’s blood is too precious to be wasted on lesbians,” she’d once countered scaldingly), and princes and kings usually didn’t look towards warriors as future spouses. They seemed to turn a blind eye to their own king, funnily enough. Zelda stood firmly by the belief that any royal who couldn’t stand to be in the presence of an even remotely strong woman didn’t deserve the satisfaction of marrying her, and luckily, Impa and her father supported her in that belief. As it happened, the advisors and the king had never gotten along very well, but he couldn’t find anyone better to replace them.

(“Besides,” King Norian would tell his daughter, “what they say about your future spouse doesn’t matter, since we’ve already agreed upon the prince whom you are going to marry. Unless you’ve changed your mind?” No, she hadn’t changed her mind, thank you very much. One boring betrothal process was more than enough.)

And thirdly, Zelda wasn’t the most well-mannered of Hyruleans. She’d learned through experience that giving cheek to nobles was frowned upon. She knew how to be polite when the situation called for it, but she couldn’t help the occasional snarky comment she would throw towards her equally rude elders. Someone had to put them in their place. Unfortunately, the combined efforts of her and her father weren’t enough to discourage the high-and-mighty advisors, who were well aware of how secure they were in their positions. Still, that didn’t stop Zelda from trying to inconvenience them at every turn, much to Impa’s chagrin. The sheikah was doing her best to meet the princess’ needs and wishes, but she rarely stood against the court herself. Unlike Zelda, her job wasn’t protected by blood, meaning she could be fired at hardly a moment’s notice. Behind closed doors, she would encourage her charge in her efforts, but never participated in her shenanigans. Maybe that was why Princess Zelda was so rude to the nobles; she had to give off enough sass for two people, filling in for Impa.

All of that to say, Zelda made every attempt to be anything but a normal princess, and frankly didn’t see why everyone wanted to be royals. It wasn’t as great as fairytales made it sound. Yet once again, she found herself explaining this belief to someone who thought being a princess would have solved all of their troubles.

“Just because I’m a princess doesn’t mean I can just dismiss all of my problems with a wave of my hand,” Zelda explained patiently to Tali, who was walking beside her on the rocky path they followed. “All of the challenges you currently face might be gone, but I’ve got my own set of problems.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you do,” Tali replied while staring straight ahead. “You get to worry about which crown would make the best impression on whatever suitor you’re about to meet, while I have to scrape up enough money every day if I even hope to survive. Totally comparable situations.”

Agitated, Zelda chose to glare at the rough ground she treaded on instead of her traveling companion, trying to think of a decent way to justify herself. In the silence she left, she could hear someone talking up ahead. It sounded like Vaen, and she glanced up to see that he was currently talking Anvu’s ear off. The gerudo didn’t even grace him with a response half the times he paused. In between the duo and the princess was Inrah, whose gaze was constantly shifting subjects, watching everyone and everything for potential threats. Mikau was out of sight, but she assumed he was still up ahead of the group, exploring areas slightly off the path to Death Mountain. He had never been outside of Lanayru before, and he wanted to take all of it in.

Zelda perked up when she thought of something. “Okay, but have you ever had assassins search the entire kingdom in hopes of finding and killing you?” She asked, remembering why she had even met Mikau and Tali in the first place.

Tali’s beak opened before quickly snapping it shut. “No,” he admitted, crossing his arms and looking away. “But I would much rather die in my sleep thanks to a slit throat than suffer through days of starvation.”

Sighing, Zelda brushed a strand of sticky hair out of her face, still not looking over at him. “I think I might have to agree with you on that point.”

As expected, neither of them wanted to pick up the conversation after that, so they fell into a period of silence. She took the time to admire their surroundings for herself, wondering if anything had changed since her last visit to the home of the gorons aside from the fact that she was no longer accompanied by a royal entourage. Firstly, it was earlier in the morning than usual; in her past visits, she had rarely stayed in the Blue Village beforehand, meaning the stretch of land between the village and the mountain was often traversed at midday or later. Today, they had set out as early as possible, and the sun hadn’t even reached its zenith yet. The group had met up at the Elde Inn, acquired more gear for surviving in the warm temperatures, and set off immediately after their quick breakfast. Secondly, the trail didn’t appear to be as well maintained as before. The last difference she had noticed was that they hadn’t encountered a single fellow traveler on the way.

Before leaving, everyone had chugged at least one fireproof elixir (and almost everyone had gagged immediately afterwards at the wretched taste), and some members of the party had gone a step further with heat-resistant clothing. Inrah was originally wearing a sapphire circlet to make the temperature more bearable, but after seeing Mikau suffer in the lower portion of Eldin alone they decided to let him have it. The zora had also tried to purchase a set of armor known as the flamebreaker set, but the only piece that even remotely fit him was the helmet, so he was now decked out in a metal helmet, a sapphire circlet that was hidden by the aforementioned headpiece, a drab brown scarf, and his copper finrings and bracelets that had started to oxidize long ago. He honestly looked ridiculous. Tali, Zelda, and Inrah all bought outfits made of a strange red cloth that was supposedly resistant to flames to a degree. Anvu and Vaen opted to remain in their disguises, deciding that they would be fine with the help of the potions.

Now that they were physically prepared for Death Mountain, it was only a matter of climbing. They hadn’t brought the horses or the carriage out of fear that the terrain was too treacherous for the equines, leaving everyone to travel on foot. The mountain was said to be within walking distance. A bit too late into their journey, Zelda realized that the innkeeper whom they’d asked for directions had failed to mention just how long they would be walking. She had been on the path before, but at the time she had ridden a horse, since it was safer. That same innkeeper had informed them that multiple rockslides had occurred recently to make the trail harder to traverse. So far, he’d been right about at least one thing.

Zelda frowned when she saw Inrah stopped a bit ahead of her, staring up a wall of sheer rock that blocked the narrow path. Looks like leaving the horses behind was a good idea after all. Everyone who had gone before them had already climbed over. Without missing a beat, Tali jumped into the air and flew over the obstruction with ease, disappearing behind the stone. Since she couldn’t exactly sprout wings of her own and follow him, Zelda stopped next to the guard and began rolling up her long sleeves in anticipation of climbing. They could try to teleport over, but neither knew how wide the rock was, and might accidentally warp half of themselves inside the obstacle. That sounded less than pleasant, so neither tried.

However, as the princess was lodging her foot into a small shelf she could see, Inrah didn’t budge. She hesitated and backed away from the wall. “Is something wrong?” She asked, noticing how they kept looking all around them.

Inrah slowly brought their garnet colored eyes back to stare at Zelda. “Do you hear it?” They whispered, one of their long ears twitching. “There’s something here.”

Now on edge, Zelda turned around to search the surrounding rocks for movement. She thought she could hear something lightly tapping rocks, but there was also the chance that she was imagining it after her friend had pointed it out. “Impa told me that keese still roam this area, even with monsters going extinct, so it could be those,” she offered.

Inrah furrowed their brow. “Keese don’t crawl,” they pointed out, clearly apprehensive. “Whatever it is, it almost sounds like it’s hopping around.”

Zelda shrugged, not bothering to hide how clueless she was. “Lizards?”

“No, it’s too heavy to be-”

Without warning, two creatures leapt down from the bluff to their right, letting out an inhuman shriek as they did so. Their forms were reduced to blurs, yet it was clear that they intended to land on the two travelers. With the ease of practice, Inrah safely warped a few feet away, but Zelda couldn’t concentrate on the spell long hard enough before the beast was on top of her, knocking her on her back. She might have screamed, but one of the creature’s spindly legs was pinned over her throat. Spots danced in her vision from her skull’s impact with the stone pathway as she tried to quickly assess whatever being was trying to kill her.

From what she could see, it had at least three yellow legs, and she assumed there was a forth out of her line of sight. The creature’s circular body was orange and the size of a small table. Instead of a face, one side of its body was occupied by a large magenta eye that stared directly at the princess, fang-like spikes protruding from below it. Zelda tried punching it in the stomach to get it off of her, but she soon discovered that its body was protected by a thick carapace. Seeing that her first idea wouldn’t work, she began pushing its leg away from her throat while it screamed and leaned towards her face, jaws snapping. 

“Zelda!” Inrah yelled from somewhere to her right, forgetting to call her by her alias in their concern. “Are you- agh!” Their words cut off, and Zelda wasn’t sure whether she should be relieved or terrified that they weren’t followed by screams. Relieved, she decided when she heard her friend’s familiar grunts from them presumably fighting the other monster. Now she knew they were alive.

After pushing for what felt like a small eternity but was really only seconds, Zelda was able to slide the creature’s foot off of her neck, leaving a thin trail of blood in its wake. The movement caused the creature to dip forward alarmingly, one of its mandibles almost brushing her face. Without even thinking, she screamed at the monster and slammed her hands into its uncomfortably close underbelly, desperate to get it off of her. Surprisingly, the spider-like being flipped backwards and landed upside down. It was remarkably lightweight. While it was preoccupied with righting itself, Zelda sat up and rubbed her throat, the warm blood sticking to her fingers. It didn’t feel deep enough to be of any concern, but it still hurt considerably, strengthening the specks that already dotted her sight. She pressed her eyes closed and shook her head before jumping to her feet, whipping around to where she could hear Inrah struggling.

She had been shocked that a trained sheikah warrior was having trouble taking down one of the oversized mites, but she quickly realized that while they were fighting well, Inrah was without a weapon. They must have forgotten to take one back from Anvu for the journey to Death Mountain. Currently, they were holding one of the monster’s legs and trying to force it off of the cliff to the trail’s left, even as it constantly used its remaining legs to crawl forward and push Inrah further away from their goal. Hoping to get their attention, Zelda whistled sharply and unsheathed her eightfold blade. The moment they looked towards her, she slid the sword across the ground towards the warrior. They wasted no time in jumping away from the monster just long enough to pick it up, then immediately spinning back around and stabbing it into the creature’s eye. Zelda allowed herself to sigh in relief when the creature shrieked once again before sliding backwards off of the blade, allowing for Inrah to kick it once and punt it right over the cliff.

However, her break from the fighting was short lived, as indicated by Inrah suddenly yelling “Look out!” and pointing over her shoulder. She quickly spun to face her own opponent, who had obviously recovered and was leaping for her face. Now weaponless, Zelda lashed out with the first thing she could think of: magic. A fireball was one of the easiest spells to conjure, so that’s what she immediately turned to when she raised her arms in front of her, putting all of her strength into that one spell. The heat from her own magic immediately caused her to break out in a sweat, more so than she already had, and the magical strain made her vision become almost overrun with spots, but she found it was more than worth it to watch her enormous fireball engulf the monster. In the almost blinding light she had created, she failed to see what had become of the creature before its carapace smacked her in the forehead, knocking her down once again.

Luckily, Inrah was behind her this time and managed to catch her, hooking their arms under hers while she clutched at her head. “How bad is it?” They asked while leaning over her, clearly concerned about how many hits she had taken to the head.

Zelda waved a hand dismissively, trying to ignore how blurry her vision was becoming. “Later,” she said, blocking her eyes with her hands from the harsh sunlight. “Make sure you finish the... the monster off. I fried it, so it should be... weak.”

“Uh...” They trailed off while looking behind themselves. “I think ‘fried’ is an understatement.”

Slightly concerned, and a little bit curious, the princess shakily pushed herself back into a stand and removed her hands from her face, glancing over at where she guessed the enemy had landed. She had to blink a few times to make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her. The only thing left of the insect-like foe was its hard shell, which was smoking from the inside.

“Impressive magic, but overkill,” Inrah informed her, following her gaze. “If we weren’t wearing these goron tunics or whatever, I bet we’d be in rough shape as well. Let me tell you, that thing was _hot_.”

Zelda continued to stare at the smoking carapace, dumbfounded, even as her friend tried to fully assess her injuries. She only jerked away from them when they placed their left hand on her forehead. “What are you trying to do?” She asked, confused.

“You took multiple hard hits,” Inrah explained, their hand starting to glow. “I know some healing magic, so I might as well put it to use.”

When the pain in her head began to dull, she couldn’t object. She wanted to say she was fine, but they both knew that was a lie. “I thought Vaen would be our assigned healer,” was the only thing she commented on.

Inrah snorted. “Yeah? Then he can come over here and do his frigging job. Until then, you’re stuck with me.”

As Zelda’s various wounds began to slowly heal, both of them could hear something else shuffling nearby. On edge from the encounter, they turned to face the rock that blocked their path, silently agreeing upon the source of the noise. While they didn’t stop using their healing magic through one hand, Inrah tightened their grip on the sword in their other hand.

Thankfully, the mystery creature crawling over the side of the boulder wasn’t another enemy, but Anvu. Zelda was naturally relieved to see him, especially in one piece, although she did notice that his braid was very messy and disheveled. When he saw the two of them, he sighed. “Looks like you guys are alright.”

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” Inrah retorted spitefully, although they weren’t completely serious. Probably. “How would you feel, knowing the princess died because you didn’t help her?”

Anvu’s expression remained impassive. “Justified, since we were busy with our own monsters. Do either of you know what those even were?”

While Inrah continued glaring at the bard, Zelda studied the shell that was now leaning on the wall of rock beside them. “I believe those were tektites,” she decided after examining the beast’s remains, “which is odd, since they haven’t been seen in decades. I thought they were extinct.”

“I can tell you right now that they aren’t, unless we just killed the last pack in existence.”

“Thanks, I gathered as much on my own.”

Remaining silent, Inrah took a step away from the princess, their left hand falling to their side. “Good enough for now,” they mumbled as they held up the eightfold blade in their other hand. Zelda gladly took it and sheathed it again. The warrior looked back up at Anvu. “All clear on your side of the rock?”

“All good. Feel free to join us any time, although sooner would be better than later.” He vanished back behind the obstacle before even finishing his sentence, the last couple of words becoming harder to hear.

Inrah watched him leave without comment, trying to mirror his blank expression. They were a naturally expressive person, so giving him the silent treatment was difficult. Once he was gone, they turned to Zelda. “I think I took care of most of your concussion, but I’m not sure if anything else was seriously hurt. Think you can climb up?”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured them, walking past them and towards the rock. She secured her foot in the shelf she found earlier and began ascending, careful not to slip due to her wet fingers. About halfway up, Inrah began climbing as well and easily passed her, but she made no comment on it. They were a trained warrior. She was a princess. This shouldn’t be a contest.

Upon reaching the top, Inrah quickly slid down the other side while Zelda hung back to look over everyone. No one looked severely injured, although Mikau seemed slightly shaken. It was hard to tell, beneath all of the apparel cluttering his head and neck area. Zelda noticed that something was amiss, and she quickly looked over everyone again before furrowing her brow. “Where’s Vaen?”

Through his helmet, she could see Mikau smile before stepping aside, revealing the small pixie that had been hiding behind him. It looked like a purple glowing ball with wings. She immediately recognized it as a fairy, and barely suppressed a giggle at the implications. “I’m sorry, are you telling me he turned into _that_?”

“Did it as soon as the fighting started,” Tali said smoothly, looking up at her. “The oversized bugs spooked him.”

“I’ve never had monsters like that in my fountain!” Vaen defended himself shrilly. His voice was a much higher pitch than normal. “I’m a bit behind in my combat skills, so please excuse me if I don’t charge into battle!”

“There’s a lot of grey area in between charging into battle and running from it,” Inrah mentioned, leaning on the boulder. The pixie’s only reply was a series of unintelligible squeaks.

Laughing silently, Zelda slid down the rock face to land next to the sheikah. “Can you still heal people like that?” She wondered, rubbing a fresh collection of blood off of her neck. “Better yet, can you just turn back?”

Vaen hesitated. “I can do both,” he eventually said, “but I’d rather not do the latter. You know, in case more monsters arrive- not that I’m running away! I can help as a healer! It’s easier to go around and heal everyone when I’m small and can fly.”

Inrah nodded. “Good. Now, heal.” They jabbed a finger towards Zelda.

The fairy begrudgingly floated over the the princess and muttered something under his breath when he paused in front of her neck. She felt slightly uncomfortable when she remembered the fairy was a person that was now incredibly close to her, but forced herself to not comment on it. He was healing her, after all, per Inrah’s demand. She glanced over at the warrior standing to her left. Normally, they were fairly carefree and optimistic, but they had become unusually serious and snappy after Zelda’s life had been threatened. She hoped that this personality shift was temporary.

After flying around his patient a couple of times, Vaen backed away to a much more comfortable distance. “Didn’t heal absolutely everything, but I should probably save some of my mana,” he told her. She nodded in agreement. Satisfied, he turned and fluttered away, choosing to linger around Mikau’s head.

Seeing that everyone was together again and overall healthy, Tali turned to look down at the princess. “Now what? Do we just continue?”

Zelda wiped the blood on her fingers off on her new apparel, hoping that it would blend in with the red material. She didn’t care that all eyes were on her. “Yes,” she said, walking away from the rock and towards where the path wound up towards the mountain. “Seeing tektites here is definitely strange, but I doubt we can do anything about them until we inform someone else. So for now, we continue.”

Inrah nodded and swiftly caught up with her charge. The others fell in step behind them, although it didn’t take long for Mikau to wander ahead and start picking up every rock that looked vaguely interesting to him. After the attack, everyone was more alert, glancing up at the wall to their right every now and then. None of them could shake the feeling that they were constantly being watched.

And for good reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was WILDLY different originally, but writers block happened and I figured out that the plot just didn’t want to be rushed. I think I just now realized that this fic is going to take a lot longer than intended, and I might be okay with that.
> 
> Also, [RelykMasson10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelykMasson10/pseuds/RelykMasson10) was kind enough to create fan art for this fic! First, they did a lovely drawing of Mikau, which you can find [here](https://www.deviantart.com/nightstandart/art/Mikau-SED-Sticker-ish-version-850135687) (with outline) or [here](https://www.deviantart.com/nightstandart/art/Mikau-SED-850137407) (without outline). They have also drawn an excellent Anvu, and the two versions of him are [here](https://www.deviantart.com/nightstandart/art/Anvu-SED-Sticker-version-850901303?ga_submit_new=10%3A1596509573) and [here](https://www.deviantart.com/nightstandart/art/Anvu-SED-Non-sticker-version-850900854).


	13. A Matter of Money

If someone asked Mikau to describe the inside of Death Mountain in as few words as possible, he would have no trouble at all. It was _hot_. Any other traits of the city within the volcano paled in comparison to the overwhelming heat, even with his newfound gear made specifically for this kind of situation.

Once he had conceded that the heat couldn’t be helped, Mikau tried to take note of the other aspects of the city that the group was currently wandering through. As expected, it was populated almost entirely by gorons, with travelers of other races milling about. There was not another zora in sight. From what little he’d seen of the market, the first couple of stalls appeared to sell fireproof gear and potions. They’d walked right past the rest of the shops for now, but he was interested in going back and seeing what the others had to offer. Not an inch of the floor was paved, as Mikau’s bare feet had noticed, although the stone did appear to be worn and beaten into being flat. If it had massive rock people walking back and forth on it all day, then that was probably inevitable.

“So, what’s the current goal?” Inrah asked the princess as they cracked their knuckles. “Get more info, find more clues, go triforce hunting?” When she shot them a look from speaking so openly, they rolled their eyes. “Yeah, like anyone’s gonna care. I’m sure they’ve already labeled us as insane; we did bring a zora into a volcano, might I remind you.”

 _'I brought myself into a volcano,'_ Mikau corrected, although he knew that neither of them could understand him. In fact, due to his location at the back of the pack, the only person who may have even seen him was Anvu, and he clearly had no idea what he said.

“I thought we had enough to go off of from your parents,” Vaen said with a frown, looking at the two sheikah in front while simultaneously tying his hood around his waist like a belt. He must have finally decided that wearing a cloak inside of a flaming mountain might not have been the best idea. Mikau was in a similar boat, with his scarf piled up under his uncomfortable helmet, but he was too stubborn to take it off unless absolutely necessary.

Zelda frowned, running a hand through her artificially white hair that was currently let down, save for a loop on each side of her head. From what little time they had spent together, Mikau had gathered that she messed with her hair when she was nervous or trying to think. “I believe what they told us about the Tower of Hera is as good a lead as any,” she agreed, “but I would rather not venture there first, especially if we find information to dispute their evidence. That temple has a reputation for a reason. It was dangerous centuries ago, and now it might not be structurally sound after both age and... whatever chaos the Hero of the Four Sword may have caused in there.”

Although they hadn’t been present for the conversation about the tower itself, Inrah nodded along, having enough knowledge of the temple previously to understand her point. “So we’re looking for a safer alternative, right? But wouldn’t the triforce pieces - stop giving me that look, nobody cares - wouldn’t the triforce pieces naturally gravitate towards more dangerous areas?”

Slightly more cautious than her friend, Zelda looked back and forth before replying in a low voice. “It’s the triforce of _courage_ , Inrah, not the triforce of stupidity. I doubt the hero survived long enough to kill evil in every form it takes by running headfirst into any danger he sees.”

“You’d be surprised,” Vaen chimed in from behind them. Mikau couldn’t help his smile at the princess’ look of exasperation.

She didn’t respond verbally, returning her focus to where they were headed. The path they were on ended abruptly, the tunnel opening into a huge cavern that at first glance seemed to be a pit. If you looked down, there were periodically placed paths in concentric circles that made the cylindrical chasm thinner and thinner, until it ended in a flat circle of stone at the bottom with a slightly elevated ring in the center. Each concentric pathway had numerous tunnels leading out of it, as well as small windows in the stone to reveal rooms for shops and staircases behind the rocky walls. The level they were on was the top, and like the others, it contained a circular path around the gap. Every road had a fence to keep people from falling (or rolling) off the edge.

“Do you think they have a library?” Zelda wondered, placing her hands on the railing and leaning over to admire the pathways below. “That seems like the best place to start if we’re searching for history.”

No one spoke up at first. After a moment of silence, Inrah stepped forward and leaned on the fence next to the princess. “Sikhe, I think out of all of us, you’ve visited Death Mountain the most. If anyone would know, it certainly wouldn’t be me.”

“I see.” She nodded to herself, watching the gorons below her go about their daily routines. “In that case, perhaps we should split up. I would like to search for a library, and one or two of you could accompany me, while the rest simply ask the residents of the city what they know about the previous heroes.”

“I’ll go with you,” Inrah decided immediately, not giving anyone the chance to intervene. “Although, Anvu, I’ll be needing one of my swords back. Just in case anything goes awry.”

The bard quickly unstrapped one of the swords from his belt and handed it over. As he did, Zelda frowned. “You know, maybe you need an alias as well,” she reasoned, watching Inrah take the deactivated sheikah weapon. “Your disguise will hardly do any good if you keep your name.”

Anvu considered her point. “In that case, call me Aveil from now on,” he decided, adjusting his veil to ensure that it covered enough of his face. “It’s a fairly common name, so it won’t be suspicious.” 

Behind him, Vaen began to wring his hands. “Two sheikah, on the other hand, are _very_ suspicious,” he pointed out with a mildly concerned expression.”

Briefly, Zelda tapped her forehead, as if she was making sure that there was nothing there. “I think I’m alright, since I don’t have any tattoos. Inrah is pretty obviously a royal guard, though...” Her eyes drifted up to look at the sheikah eye tattooed on Inrah’s forehead. Anyone marked by it was a servant of the royal family, and if they were found so far from the castle, one might assume they were a traitor who abandoned their post.

Without missing a beat, Vaen untied his cloak and handed it to a surprised Inrah. “The hood is pretty low,” he explained, “so it might cover it up.”

Hesitantly, they accepted the cloak before fastening it around their neck and pulling the hood up, its drab brown coloration standing out against their fiery red tunic. As promised, it obscured their top tattoo, but the marks underneath their eyes were still present. “It’s a bit toasty,” they said, adjusting the collar to rest in a more comfortable position. “But it definitely works. Thank you.”

As Vaen nodded in satisfaction, Mikau tilted his head. _'What about the lines under your eyes?'_ He signed. Tali quickly translated.

“Hmm? Oh, those are fine,” Inrah said, subconsciously touching the line beneath their right eye. “A bar under each eye just means I know some healing magic. It’s an old sheikah tradition to use tattoos as indicators of your various traits, regardless of your allegiance. Nothing abnormal.”

“Oh,” Vaen said, summing up Mikau’s thoughts at the moment quite nicely. However, he went a step further. “Still, aren’t you two a little out of place here?”

The duo exchanged a look of silent agreement. Inrah shrugged. “In that case, Tali, would you mind coming with us?” They asked, looking over at the rito. “I did kind of suggest the idea of you guys coming so that our group would look less suspicious.”

Tali blinked, not expecting all eyes to suddenly be on him, but he quickly recovered. “Sure,” he said in a nonchalant tone. “Not like I have any spare rupees to waste on shopping, anyway.”

Zelda flinched. “You know, if you need more money, you only have to ask. I will gladly give you some.”

Shaking his head, Tali moved so that he stood beside Inrah, forcing the ninja to be in between himself and the princess. “No, we have things to do. Let’s go find that library.” He jerked his head towards a staircase to lower levels before heading over there himself, Inrah quickly following. Zelda managed to stifle a sigh and trailed after the two, casting a final glance at the trio she left behind before disappearing into the stairwell that was carved into the cave wall.

The three boys stood in silence for an unreasonably long time, no one sure what to do next, until Vaen clapped his hands together loudly. It immediately drew the attention of the two others, which had been his goal. “Well, we all heard the pri- uh, Sikhe. Where do we want to start asking around? The markets? Might be able to buy a couple of things while we’re there, too.”

Neither Mikau nor Anvu looked terribly excited by that idea. The former patted his side where a rupee pouch would hang, showing that he didn’t have one. _'I think Tali left our rupees with all of our other stuff in the Blue Village,'_ he said with a shrug. _'We didn’t think we’d stay here for long.'_ He didn’t mention that even with his rupees, he was in a tight spot for money, so he didn’t see himself shopping a lot in his future anyway.

The latter busied himself with adjusting the sleeves to his vai disguise. “No idea what he just said, but I imagine it’s similar to my excuse: no money.”

Vaen looked completely flabbergasted by the gerudo’s comment. “But aren’t you a-” He caught himself before he was able to finish, glanced back and forth, and continued in a much more hushed whisper. “Aren’t you a prince?”

Anvu scoffed. “A _gerudo_ prince. I might be one of the richest people of the desert, but I’d be willing to bet half of that money that Inrah is better off than I was originally. The only reason why our royal family has two silver rupees to rub together now is because King Norian has been generous enough to support us, as part of our recent negotiations, and even then I’m sure he won’t fund us enough to even be considered Hyrulean nobles until I-” He cut off suddenly, almost as if he were physically biting his tongue to stop himself. He paused to gather his thoughts and take a deep breath after his accidental rant. “Yes. I am a prince with no money. That’s all.”

Both of his spectators were watching him with expressions of interest overshadowed by confusion, but Vaen quickly snapped out of it. “Okay, so neither of you are drowning in rupees, but do you know what the different color values are?”

Now Anvu looked confused as well, especially after he’d been expecting some sort of response to his shortened tirade. “Yes, it’s common knowledge. Why?”

After ensuring that he wasn’t in the way of anyone traveling through the tunnels, Vaen got down on his knees and unhooked his own rupee pouch from his belt. “Because I want to know what all of this is worth,” he said before turning the bag on its head. The two bystanders jumped back as a flood of rupees began pouring forth from the sack.

“Sweet Hylia, Vaen, what are you trying to-” Anvu forfeit his question in favor of crouching down and using his arm as a barrier to keep the rupees from spilling over the edge of the path. Mikau followed suit, his eyes wide as he watched the money fall in a steady current from the fairy’s pouch.

When the three of them had a large pile of rupees trapped between them, Vaen swiftly closed the bag and set it next to him, allowing for the others to marvel at how much money he’d produced from the bag of holding and simultaneously wonder how much was still in the pouch. The stack of gems reflected the torchlight in many different colors, although green was by far the most common. Mikau couldn’t keep himself from picking a red rupee off the top of the stack and spinning it in his hand, watching as the light danced across the stone around him.

Gingerly, Anvu pushed on the stack in hopes of moving it farther from the edge. “You mean to tell me you have no idea what this is worth?” He questioned, lifting his right hand from the pile to fix his hair, which had fallen over half of his face.

“Uh...” Vaen leaned back on his hands to get a good view of the stack. “If it’s anything like force gems, I’d guess the greens are one, blues are five, reds are twenty, and violets are fifty. But I don’t know what yellow and orange are supposed to be...”

 _'You have orange rupees?!'_ Mikau asked, dropping the stone currently in his hand in favor of signing.

As Vaen tried to gauge how valuable orange rupees were based on that reaction, Anvu began sifting through the pile. “It’s mostly low value colors,” he observed, the currency clinking together as he worked. “Lots of blue and green. Actually, a moderate amount of blue and an absurd amount of green. Goddesses above, that’s a lot of green rupees. Why do you have so many singles?” He froze, thinking of a reason behind the overabundance of those two hues. “You... you’re not a stripper, are you?”

Vaen nearly choked on himself, falling backwards before he was able to get his hands firmly behind himself once again. “Do I _look_ like a stripper?” He countered, raising an eyebrow.

Anvu scanned the fairy for a few seconds. “Fair enough,” he decided, returning to sorting the stack of money.

Mikau, meanwhile, looked utterly bewildered. _'What’s a stripper?'_ He asked, looking between the two.

This time, they both froze, staring at each other. Based on the fairy's expression, Anvu was able to guess what had been signed. “Look, if he somehow doesn’t know already, I’m not about to ruin that,” Vaen said, averting his gaze.

The bard nodded. “Good idea.”

It was clear to Mikau that neither of them were about to answer his question, so he dismissed it for now and got to work organizing the rupees. Since almost all of them were green or blue, it didn’t take long to get them all sorted. Anvu crossed his arms once they were done.

“It’s a good amount,” he decided, “but I’m not about to count all of those greens. Where did you get all of this, anyway?”

Vaen grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. “You know that obsession hylians have with throwing rupees into fountains and other bodies of water? Fairy fountains are practically made of money with how much the kids toss us.”

 _'That sounds like stealing,'_ Mikau said with a frown.

“It’s not stealing if they give it to us,” Vaen pointed out. “Especially if we hold up our end of the deal.” At the zora’s look of confusion, he continued. “People often do it in hopes of getting good luck in return. I don’t know about my sisters in their fountains across Hyrule, but I always try to enhance anything they have on them as a payment of sorts - armor, weapons, maybe even something as simple as making their clothes all clean and shiny. It makes them smile, and that’s all that matters, in the end.”

Even that little explanation was enough to make Mikau’s frown turn into a smile. Anvu, on the other hand, wasn’t entirely paying attention, instead trying to shove the piles of rupees into various storage bags he had. When Vaen saw what he was doing, he shot him a look of betrayal. “Don’t worry, I’m just keeping them sorted,” the gerudo said without looking up.

The fairy sniffed. “Whatever you say, Prince of Thieves,” he retorted as Anvu scooped the few red rupees into a similarly colored pouch.

Once all of the rupees were put away, the three stood up together. “The market is that way,” Anvu said, pointing towards where they’d come from. “I don’t see why we can’t start there, and if you wanted to browse the wares yourself, I won’t stop you.”

Vaen rolled his eyes. “Yes you will. You have most of my money.” Still, he started walking towards where they had seen the shops. “You guys are welcome to use my money, though. You’ll probably need it more.”

With his drastically longer legs, Anvu caught up to him with ease. “In that case, I might buy a fairy. They’re always nice to have around.”

Yet again, Vaen looked like he’d been cheated. “You’re going to buy _what now?_ ”

“A fairy. I’m sure you’re familiar with them.”

“Well of course I am, but you- you- you can’t just _buy_ one!”

“I’ve done it before.”

“That’s so wrong!”

As the two bickered, Mikau kept his distance, walking a couple of yards behind them. Whatever they were dealing with, he wanted no part of it. In fact, watching them fight from the background was mildly entertaining. The humor of their argument was fueled by the fact that Vaen was about half the size of the person he was fighting with.

Eventually, their argument died down, and they were able to go to the market in peace. Mikau wasn’t sure who’d won in the end, and he didn’t ask. They would tell him if he needed to know. He occupied himself with listening in on different conversations, not trying to hop in on any himself, and wondering what Tali found himself doing right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I’ve just had a bad case of writers block lately. The next one will also take a while, since I plan on it being longer.
> 
> As a general rule, locations will be based on their Twilight Princess appearances unless they didn’t appear in that game, but I tried to make goron city more than a cave with a wrestling ring in the middle. It’s not meant to match any game that I’m aware of. Some aspects are from TP, some are from OoT, and some are from my own imagination.


	14. Trial By Fire

Despite the significant height difference between the two of them, Tali actually wasn’t much faster than Inrah. It made sense, since he was made for the skies as opposed to the ground, but Inrah would have thought that his long legs would’ve been slightly more helpful. They were almost surprised by how easily they kept pace with him as they traversed the tunnels of Goron City. Sometimes, they even had to slow down to avoid passing him.

Zelda, thanks to her human build combined with her height, was even faster than both of them, effortlessly maintaining her lead while guiding them on their journey within the mountain. She almost left them in the dust from the very beginning, but constantly stopped and looked back to make sure she didn’t lose her partners. At least, that’s what Inrah initially assumed she was doing. Now that they studied their leader’s movements more closely, it looked more like she kept checking on Tali specifically, like she was studying him. It would have made the ninja nervous, if they hadn’t been trained to constantly watch and memorize every detail about everyone they met. Maybe it was just part of Zelda’s alternate persona as the sheikah warrior Sikhe, and if so, she played a very convincing part.

The three had been searching for a library for what felt like hours when they couldn’t see the sunlight, but Inrah wasn’t that tired. They had been trained to survive much more grueling ordeals. Their feet were becoming a little sore, but they remained silent about it. Tali also remained silent and expressionless, although they guessed that he wasn’t enjoying himself. The only one who had no qualms about showing her discomfort was Zelda, and even then, she didn’t say a word. Her face was screwed up to the side as she tried to ignore the pain in her feet, but she didn’t complain.

Tali’s annoyance eventually outweighed his pride as they looked around the circular path for what felt like the millionth time, and he felt the need to speak up. “We didn’t happen to agree upon a meeting place, did we?” He asked, although he already knew the answer.

“I’m afraid not,” Zelda replied, pausing to glance up at a stairwell carved into the wall. After craning her neck to see where the passageway led, she nodded to herself and entered. “For now, I’m trying to go back to where we left them,” she continued over her shoulder. “Hopefully, they didn’t go far.”

Inrah scanned the area around them, searching for any signs of the rest of their pack. “It’s a large cave system. At the very least, we can ask around and see if anyone has seen a zora pass by. He sticks out against all everything here.”

Zelda was still looking behind her at her followers as she walked, meaning she didn’t realize she was about to bump into someone until it was too late. She collided against what might as well have been a stone wall. “Ah!” She exclaimed, taking a step back. Unfortunately for her, she’d forgotten that she was on a stairwell, and her foot met open air instead of solid ground. She would have fallen backwards had the goron she’d bumped into not caught her arm.

“Whoa, easy there!” He said with a lighthearted laugh. He effortlessly pulled the small human back to standing on the step she’d slid from, leaving her to blink in confusion and try to process what had just happened. As she regained her bearings, Tali lightly bumped his shoulder against Inrah.

“Aren’t you supposed to watch her back or something?” He muttered as he watched the princess, who was now apologizing profusely to the goron. “Figured that would include warning her of obstacles in her path.”

Inrah shrugged. “Look, I saw that coming from a mile away, but I thought I might as well teach her a lesson. She never looks where she’s going.”

The rito raised an eyebrow. “She could have hit her head pretty hard on these stairs, which are made of _solid rock_.”

“Yeah, but she didn’t.”

“She could have.”

“But she didn’t.”

“But she could-” Tali sighed and rubbed his forehead. “This is pointless.”

Grinning, Inrah took a step away from him. “I see my annoyance tactic has managed to save me from one conversation I don’t want to participate in.”

Tali paused, trying to process what they just said. “Hang on - what?” But instead of responding, the sheikah turned away from him and walked up the stairs to where Zelda was, planting themselves firmly beside her.

“Hey, thanks for that,” they said to the goron with a broad smile. “I keep telling my sister she really needs to pay attention to where she’s walking.”

The goron laughed again. “Oh, it’s no problem at all! Happens all the time in these tunnels.” He smiled and looked down at the two shorter Hyruleans before frowning in thought. “Hey... would one of you happen to be named ‘Sikhe’?”

Surprised, they both exchanged a glance. Zelda hesitated before clearing her throat and looking back up at the goron. “Yes, that would be me... I’m sorry, but have we met?”

“Nope! I was just told to look for you!” Instead of answering the trio’s instantly confused faces, he turned and yelled behind himself, “Found them!”

As he rotated to face them once again, someone else came down the stairs beside him, being previously hidden by his towering height. Actually, they could have been hidden behind him even if he had the stature of a hylian; the newcomer was the size of a child. Inrah smiled when they recognized the disguised fairy. “Hello, Vaen,” they greeted. “Had to hire help to find us? I didn’t think we were that hard to spot.”

While Vaen was trying his best to keep from rolling his eyes, both Mikau and Anvu descended the stairs to their level as well, followed by a second, unfamiliar gerudo. She wasn’t wearing traditional vai clothing, instead dressed in a dark brown vest and outfit that was reminiscent of what a geologist might wear, with numerous bags and tools hanging from her belt (alongside a gerudo scimitar) and pockets seemingly everywhere. In fact, the goron that Zelda had bumped into had a matching belt with its strange instruments, although his lacked the weapon. Looking past the goron, Inrah noticed that Mikau was now wearing a red scarf on top of his old brown one. Just how many layers did the zora have on around his head?

“Please tell me you three can actually talk,” the unfamiliar gerudo said in a watered down desert accent. “I might go insane if the only people I have to talk to for this journey are Bulno and this funny little hylian.”

Vaen was about to give her some indignant response to being called “funny” and “little,” but Zelda spoke up first. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but what journey are you referring to?”

Deciding to set his annoyance aside for now, the fairy maneuvered his way to stand in between the strangers and the sheikah. “We didn’t find any leads on... uh, our goal, but these two offered to accompany us to the Tower of Flames.”

Stepping back, Inrah took a second to analyze the significantly taller strangers, but it was Zelda who spoke up. “I’m assuming you mean the Tower of Hera,” she began, “and if you are, then I’m afraid I have to refuse. Just because we would appreciate a larger group for protection doesn’t mean we should put others in danger.”

The gerudo woman scoffed. “You sheikah are even more pretentious than I expected. You think we’re doing this for your sake?”

Inrah frowned slightly. “Then why are you going there?” They inquired, genuinely curious.

The goron, presumably named Bulno, responded before his partner could. “We’re part of the HGAG - the Hyrulean Guild of Archaelogy and Geology!” He beamed as he spoke, puffing his chest out with pride. “We’ve been trying to get into that tower for ages, and you guys are giving us the perfect opportunity!”

Zelda’s lips curled up in a half smile at his enthusiasm, although she still appeared somewhat bemused. “And why do you need us to go?”

Behind Bulno, the gerudo shrugged. “It’s dangerous to go alone,” she conceded, walking past Anvu and Mikau. “We were perfectly capable of traveling there on our own, but we are no fools. Those ruins are not worth dying over. But your tiny friend made a deal with us - we can travel together for each other’s safety, and while you six provide the numbers we need, we can help you navigate and avoid the particularly dangerous areas. We have the most up to date maps memorized.”

“I see.” Zelda pondered their explanation in silence. “I suppose I don’t have any power to stop you, so welcome to the group.” (Inrah decided that now would be a bad time to point out the irony in that statement, so they held their tongue.) “May I ask for your name?”

The woman jabbed a thumb at herself. “Call me Aberu.” Turning, she nodded to the goron. “That is my partner, Bulno. And you?”

“Sikhe,” Zelda replied, “and this is my sibling, Inrah.” (Inrah had just conjured the “sibling” excuse on the fly, but Zelda seemed to take it in stride.) “Behind us is Tali. I assume you’ve already met those three?”

“You could say that. Only the short one talks, so I’ve only had a true conversation with one of them.”

Mikau began signing something, possibly in protest, but Aberu merely sighed. “No, you making sigils with your hands in my direction is not a conversation. If you are forming words, I do not understand them.”

Before anyone could try to pursue the conversation further, Bulno clapped his hands together in excitement, the sound of rocks slapping together causing everyone but the two gerudo to flinch. “Can we head out today?” He asked eagerly. “C’mon, we’ve been waiting months for this!”

Inrah took an extra precautionary step back, not wanting to get accidentally smacked by the goron’s palms, but stopped when they bumped into Tali. The rito looked down his beak at them for half a second prior to looking back up. “I don’t see why not. Are y’all ready?”

Aberu almost looked annoyed by the suggestion. “I have been ready for this for longer than I care to admit. Since you appear to be inexperienced in this field, I will lead the way. Bulno and I know the best routes to the tower.” Briskly, she spun on her heel and began walking up the stairs again. Mikau immediately followed, and Tali jogged to catch up with the zora. Next went Bulno, Vaen, and Inrah, but before Anvu could go as well, Zelda grabbed his elbow.

“Hey,” Inrah overheard her say quietly when the two new faces were far enough away. “Is there a reason you’re giving them the silent treatment?”

Through his veil, Anvu snorted. “A gerudo vai does not have a voice like mine,” he muttered, forcing Inrah to strain their pointed ears to hear him. “How long do you think this disguise would last if I said even a word?”

Although they didn’t hear the princess’ response to that, Inrah had to agree. There was nothing wrong with Anvu saying he’d been born a voe but changed later in life, except that only one voe was born every hundred years. For the sake of his disguise, it didn’t matter what he was now. It mattered how he was born. The thought was repulsive, really, but for the sake of avoiding suspicion they would have to go with it.

Unintentionally, Inrah found themselves out of earshot of the two old friends and almost bumped into Bulno. He didn’t notice the near collision, instead trying to chat with Vaen and Tali, although the latter seemed awfully distracted by something and thus didn’t pay attention. Maybe it was an act to get out of an unwanted conversation, and if that were the case, then props to him. Maybe ignoring someone’s attempt at communication was easier than trying to wriggle your way out of it.

“How far away is the tower from Goron City?” They heard the fairy in disguise ask Bulno, who shrugged and scratched the back of his head.

“Eh, I don’t know an exact time,” he said, glancing off to the side. “It’s not that hard of a trek... I’d give it an hour and a half, tops.”

Vaen nodded, satisfied. “Good. I can handle that.”

Inrah tried to stifle their snicker, but attracted the attention of the two travelers in front of them, anyway. “What?” They asked, looking over at Vaen. “Never been on a hike before?”

Unsurprisingly, he responded by rolling his eyes. “Let’s just say it’s been a little while.”

* * *

Two and a half hours into the hike, Vaen was beyond ready to give up.

No one said it would be raining. When they had begun to climb the mountain, hardly a cloud was in sight. Now, it was like all of the heavens had decided to open up and send the struggling group sliding down what was quickly becoming a slippery slope.

“I thought it didn’t rain in Eldin!” Vaen yelled ahead angrily. Unfortunately, the ire in his tone was drowned out by the raging thunder, leaving only a squeaky complaint in its place.

“Welcome to the volcano!” Aberu yelled back, sounding like she was having the time of her life. The gerudo was so far ahead of him that he could barely see her practically gliding over the mud and slick rocks that populated the rarely-used trail. In that moment, he despised her; she was the one who’d suggested continuing through the storm, which sounded stupid to him, not to mention led to his current misery.

No one else seemed to be struggling quite as much as him. Aberu was obviously relishing the rain, and Mikau seemed to be in the Sacred Realm after suffering through the dry heat of Death Mountain - hot and sticky rain was still rain to a zora. Bulno was largely unaffected by the storm, the winds not even causing him to flinch. His real trouble seemed to be making sure he didn’t slip an inch off the trail, because the moment he did, no one in the group would be able to stop him from rolling. Inrah could easily hold their own, but they held back to ensure that everyone bringing up the rear was safe. The princess and Anvu struggled a bit, but neither of them complained, and they were able to push through with each other’s help. Tali seemed to be in the worst condition physically, all of his feathers completely caked with mud that surely weighed him down. Still, he had the small advantage over everyone else of being able to fly over any inconveniences in the road, if only for a short period of time.

And then there was Vaen. By now, up to his knees was concealed under a thick layer of unidentifiable gunk, and the rain did little to wash it away. His hair had always gone frizzy in humid conditions, so everything that wasn’t plastered to his face was surrounding his skull like a fiery halo. Thanks to his laughably diminutive stature, every gust of wind threatened to carry him off the side of the narrow path. He so desperately wanted to use his magic to make the storm go away, but nooooo, their disguises had to be maintained, and no Hylian was that powerful without some magical artefact. Honestly, that sounded more like the Hylians’ problem than his.

Dragging himself through the mud, Vaen watched as everyone else got farther and farther away in his sight, until only Inrah was even remotely close. They kept looking back at him with obvious concern, but he waved them off every time. Was that wise? No, but he’d never been known for making the wisest of decisions. Maybe it was his own inflated ego that stopped him from asking for help. (Clever Hylia named him “vain” for a reason.)

He soon realized his mistake the hard way. As he was pushing against the wind, he looked up at the massive hill that stood before him, which most of his company had already conquered. Could he even make it over that with his flagging energy? He was about to find out, unfortunately, or so he thought. Distracted by the prospect of trying to summit that significant obstacle, his left foot slipped, which was exactly the opportunity the wind needed to push him off the edge.

At first, he didn’t notice that he was falling. Everything around him looked the same: thick mud, dripping rocks, an impenetrable curtain of rain. It was only when his left heel had slid all the way off the mud and was now dangling over the abyss that he realized his grave error. Suddenly panicked, he flailed his arms about, which might have made the situation worse. His right foot soon followed the first, and the ground was rushing towards him almost faster than he could register. Almost. In a brief moment of the goddesses’ grace, he was able to grab onto the edge of the path before he fell completely off the side of the mountain, and his fingers found purchase in a ragged rock. A very slick rock that was slowly slipping away from the path thanks to the added weight, but a rock nonetheless.

The wind certainly wasn’t helping. Every time he was able to scramble up even an inch by beating his legs furiously against the mountainside, the gale would push him two inches back. With the rock gradually coming loose, he couldn’t afford to keep struggling like this. Desperate for the harsh wind the abate, he did the most reasonable thing he could do in that situation. He screamed.

“STOP!!!” He yelled into the storm with all of the force his tiny lungs could muster. Amazingly, the wind greatly lessened, and relief welled up inside of him. So his wind magic was still there... which wouldn’t do jack for him if he didn’t climb off of the rock quickly, he realized with a start. Invigorated by his temporary victory, he began scrambling up the side of the hill with twice as much speed and determination as before. But it wasn’t fast enough. The rock slipped, and his body barely had time to panic before he was falling again.

... except that he wasn’t.

His stomach dropped like a dead weight, but his body seemed to hover right where it was. He blinked, trying to clear his eyes that were blurry from both raindrops and frightened tears. Squinting against the weakened precipitation that splattered against his face, he searched for the reason as to why he hadn’t plunged to his death. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t even felt something wrap around his wrist until now, as he stared up at the hand gripping his own arm like a vise, and then moved his gaze to the face it belonged to. Somehow, in the terrifying situation he found himself in, he managed to smile. He even laughed, but it was more the type of laugh one involuntarily releases when they register the fact that they almost died.

The moment they saw that he was okay, Inrah smiled as well, their face framed by muddy white hairs falling free of their ponytail. “You know, I hear fairies are extremely hard to catch,” they said lightheartedly in an obvious attempt to distract him from his predicament. “So I hope you know how disappointed I am right now.”

Bordering hysteria, Vaen laughed again. “Would you rather I fight?” He offered, although he was obviously in no condition to do so.

His rescuer grinned, their ruby eyes sparkling. “Nah, I’ll pass for now.” 

Without a word of warning, they leaned back and yanked him up by the arm, causing him to yelp in surprise. The moment his feet were even close to solid ground, he began struggling to gain a foothold until he helped pull himself up the rest of the way. Once he was securely in the middle of the path, Inrah released his wrist.

For a moment, they both sat in silence, looking each other over. Inrah’s entire stomach was coated in mud from lying in it to catch Vaen, and their usually glowing white hair was practically brown with grime. Fresh raindrops ran down their face like scattered tears. The hood he had given them had proven to be all but useless, since it was soaked through and did nothing to keep their hair from becoming drenched as well. A small streak of blood crossed their face under their right eye, giving the illusion of a second bar tattooed into their skin.

“You look horrible,” Vaen managed after an almost painful pause, taking in their entire appearance.

This time, Inrah was the one who laughed. “Looks who’s talking!” They exclaimed. To emphasize their point, they gestured to his legs, which were partially folded in front of him. After his experience on the cliffside, no skin was even visible beneath all of the gunk. He did notice that his calves were beginning to sting, making him wonder if they had been cut at some point.

“Whatever,” he replied nonchalantly, looking aside. He happened to gaze towards the hill ahead of them, making himself cringe. That wasn’t going to be fun.

Inrah studied him in silence, still managing a grin. “I’m assuming this was you?” They said, pointing to the sky to indicate the greatly reduced storm clouds. When he nodded, they smothered a snicker with one muddy hand. “So you had the brilliant idea to make the storm stop enough for you to potentially recover, but you didn’t even consider becoming a fairy and flying up?”

Vaen’s mouth opened for some snappy response, but they had a point. It had completely eluded him that the solution was so simple. “I- I was trying to keep my disguise!” He defended, holding his chin up to feel almost as tall as them.

They didn’t even try to hide their snort. “Disguises are useless if you’re dead,” they countered immediately.

He refused to dignify that with a response, turning his head sharply to the side and facing the hill. He could still fell Inrah watching him. They didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, allowing for him to simmer in her silence.

“You know, the tower is really close,” they offered from behind him, making him perk up. “Bulno said it was just beyond that hill. Of course, you still need to climb it... but you’re pretty lightweight, so I guess I could carry you...”

The suggestion surprised him, but he’d already come up with a better plan. “Actually, I don’t need to climb it,” he declared as he jumped to his feet. “Fun fact: fairies can teleport short distances.” He cracked his knuckles before grinning down at the seated sheikah. “Watch and learn.”

In the blink of an eye, Vaen vanished in a flash of lavender magic, reappearing on the other side of the hill. The storm was stronger on this side, since he’d only reduced a part of it, but that didn’t matter. He was only a couple of feet from the entrance to the tower that had somehow managed to hide behind the terrain, and he smiled when he saw the crumbling doorway. Finally, an escape from the rain.

Feeling like he regained at least a little bit of his dignity with that party trick, he smiled to himself and began shaking some of the excess water off of his arms. “I’d like to see them try to match _that_ ,” he said to no one in particular.

“Already did!”

“Sweet Hylia, what are you-” Vaen whipped around to find the source of the voice, and was beyond shocked to find Inrah standing right beside him, crossing their arms and grinning smugly. He shot his gaze back and forth as he made sure he had actually warped to a new location, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. “How- how are you-”

“Fun fact,” Inrah cut him off, “sheikah warriors can also teleport short distances.” That self-satisfied smile never leaving their lips, they breezed right past him and towards the entrance to the tower. “Try to keep up!”

He would never admit it, but he was filled with a bit of awe at the marvel. The modern magic of Hyruleans was still surprising to him, after so long in their world. Still, he wasn’t about to say that out loud.

“If you’re about to start gallivanting all across that tower for whatever goddess forsaken reason at whatever goddess forsaken hour it is right now, you win!” He yelled after them instead, kicking a clod of mud in their direction for good measure. “I’m done!”

Inrah’s borderline dissonant laughter rang through the air, although they didn’t turn back to face him. “Don’t worry, you’ve got all night to prepare! I’m not about to risk my life like that without a good night’s sleep!”

As they vanished into the ominously dark entrance, he sighed. He was bone tired, but also trapped in that awkward suspension where he could never truly sleep, so times like this really sucked. A nap would be really nice... but alas. With a sigh, he followed the sheikah into the crumbling monument, resigning himself to yet another sleepless night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I know I promised a longer chapter, but this one was a _chore_ to write. I scrapped and rewrote this more times than I can remember, and eventually just cut out the mini arc we were about to launch into for the next couple of chapters and added the second half of this chapter at the last second. Part One of this book is slow as a whole, but this was getting ridiculous. Then there was all of the unexpected stuff in my life, and basically it all amounts to this being a mess. Hopefully, after this I will be able to resume updating once a week.
> 
> Also! If you look at my account at some point in the future and see that I’ve started working on another fic, don’t panic! I have not abandoned this one! I just find that it’s easier to write when you’re working on two things at once, because when you hit writers block for one, you’re often inspired to do the other. At least, I am. The other fic that I currently have in mind is slated to update once a month. All of that to say, Someone Else’s Destiny is still my #1 priority when it comes to fics, regardless of whether or not I start writing another.


	15. Forward

Anvu was beginning to suspect that he was cursed with horrible luck. For starters, there was the obvious - he was the one gerudo male in the entire realm of Hyrule. While that sounded cool in print, it was less so in action. Being designated as the future king of the gerudo was as if the Sand Goddess had stamped “EVIL” on his forehead before he was even born. Everyone always skirted around him, acting vaguely pleasant or at the very least uninvolved, but it was only because they didn’t want him to snap their necks the moment he rose to power. _When_ , not _if_. His status at birth tied neatly to another stroke of his misfortune, that being the _timing_ of his birth. Of course when Hyruleans finally discover that gerudo kings are bad news, he rolls around. At least his mother had the good sense not to name him Ganondorf this time, although the surname of Dragmire was a traditional thing that they kept around anyway. He couldn’t imagine why.

Ignoring the fact that he was apparently destined to become the ruler of all demons, he was also born into the position of being the prince of a very poor group of people. It had been a couple of centuries since they had been led by a prince or a king, after they had tried exiling or even executing every male born until the chief of his time came along and overturned that abhorrent law, so the gerudo couldn’t grasp the fact that a royal family wouldn’t solve all of their problems. Royals were not automatically rich, royals were not born with the innate knowledge of how to run a kingdom, and royals were most certainly not prepared to fulfil their duties to their kingdom from the moment they could swing a sword. Anvu thought he’d matured rather quickly given the circumstances, but that still didn’t mean he had been ready to be betrothed at ten years old - and that was a whole other can of worms.

Even if he’d been blessed enough to be born into a family of humble hylian merchants, misfortune plagued him like a bubble’s curse. The kid could barely walk five steps without tripping over his own feet, for one. It had taken him years to perfect a smooth and regal gait, which he didn’t use very often anyway. Many people had told him that he didn’t have a very likable personality, and if he tried to change it, everyone somehow managed to become even more annoyed. Perhaps the goddesses thought they’d give him a minor benediction and make him a light sleeper, so that no one could rob him in his sleep. Of course, no one dared steal from the king of the gerudo. So now he would wake up at every small disturbance for no good reason. Maybe that was why he was almost always grumpy.

Or maybe it was because the goddesses wanted him to be anything but happy, and that was why he tried so hard to break out of the mold they had formed for him. Maybe that was why he picked up a lute instead of a sword. Maybe that was why he became the princess’ best friend instead of her worst enemy. Maybe that was why he was willing to risk his life for Hyrule instead of leading to its destruction. Maybe that was why as he stared at the crumbling ceiling of an ancient tower, listening to the rain pound on the beaten stone walls and wondering where he’d gone wrong in life, he realized that he’d done nothing wrong. Because he’d never been given the chance.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Another interruption in his thoughts. Wonderful. Perhaps the deities had finally grown tired of his mental complaints and decided to do everything in their measly, arbitrarily given power to distract him. Unfortunately, it was starting to work. The endless rain beating on the walls, someone’s just-loud-enough muttering in their sleep, Bulno’s atrocious snoring, and now this _creature_ tapping nearby was enough to make him give up on even attempting to fall back asleep, or at the very least stay still and silent. Especially when he remembered that he was in an ancient temple that was historically filled to the brim with monsters, and no one had even stepped foot in here for centuries. If the tektites had returned to the mountainside, Hylia knows what’s going on in here.

Grumbling to both himself and whatever higher power cared to listen, Anvu propped himself up on his elbows to assess his surroundings. Everyone else appeared to be sleeping peacefully, although he remembered that it was physically impossible for Vaen to properly take a nap. The fairy was currently sitting against a wall, his head dipped down towards his lap and his long hair obscuring his face. Anvu couldn’t tell if he was up to something or simply resting. Moving his attention over to his other companions, he could see that the source of the muttering was Tali, and confirmed that the ridiculously loud and obnoxious snoring was due to the goron. Mikau was next to his friend and kept shuddering in his sleep, his fingers twitching every couple of seconds. Bulno was lying spread eagle in the middle of the group. Closer to Anvu, Zelda was curled up in a little ball, and Inrah slept nearby with their hand already clutching the hilt of their sword. It was their duty to protect the princess, and while Anvu was still on the fence about trusting them - they’d only been formally introduced two weeks ago - he reasoned that if they were a traitor, they already would have made an attempt on his friend’s life. Finally, Aberu was leaning against the wall behind him, forcing him to turn his neck uncomfortably to look at her. Similar to Inrah, one hand was resting on the hilt of her sword, even though she was not awake.

Careful not to wake anybody up who was sleeping soundly, Anvu slowly made it to his feet, although the sounds of his clothes rustling made Vaen look up. The fairy blinked once at him, but didn’t say a word. Anvu didn’t entirely trust him either, but weren’t fairies supposed to be the epitome of Hylia’s grace and kindness? Vaen was by no stretch of the imagination the nicest person he’d ever met, and certainly not the most humble, yet he didn’t seem at all malicious, either. His demeanor was, quite frankly, average. Nothing that stood out as odd. No, what really got on Anvu’s nerves was that he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why the fairy was helping them. Was it just out of selflessness? Initially, he’d believed this explanation; he thought fairies were only servants of Hylia, carrying out her will to help her people. But now that he’d traveled with Vaen for a bit, he’d seen that he had a personality just like any other Hyrulean, and he wasn’t just a mindless tool. (So your personality didn’t necessarily depend on who you were born or made to be - who knew?)

People with minds had motives. Anvu could guess the motivations for almost everyone in their rag-tag team; he wanted to prove (to both himself and the world) that he wasn’t the villain, Zelda wanted to show that she wasn’t a useless damsel in distress, Inrah was trying to fulfill their duty as the princess’ guard while also proving themselves to Impa, Mikau was excited by the idea of adventure and new friends, Tali was interested in protecting his adoptive brother and acquiring new (rich!) allies, and Aberu and Bulno were tagging along for the archaeological value of whatever they might find here. But Vaen... no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a definitive reason as to why the fairy had joined their quest.

Oh. He was still staring. Quickly, he looked to a random point to his right, trying to focus on something other than the one other person who was awake. From the edge of his vision, he could see Vaen’s expression turn slightly puzzled, but he thankfully remained silent.

Trying to avoid looking towards the fairy again, Anvu turned so that his back was to the door, and focused on the tower ahead. The path into the main interior of the ancient temple was narrow, although he imagined that it had once been an elegant and wide passageway. Half of the road was missing, the jagged edge of stone left behind suggesting it had fallen off. Based on the hole located in the floor above him, he guessed a large section of that level had fallen down, taking part of the pathway with it into the inky abyss. The remaining side of the road was lined with gargoyles that were aged beyond recognition.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

The moment Anvu took a step forward, he could hear someone rising to their feet. He knew without looking that it was Vaen. He began turning around at a leisurely pace to see what the fairy was up to, naturally expecting him to be on the opposite side of the entry hall, and thus jumped when the tiny man was suddenly right next to him. Instead of yelling, he managed to contain his shock enough to merely hiss through his teeth.

“Sorry,” Vaen whispered, his already small voice nearly inaudible. “It’s just faster. Uh, where are you going?”

At first, Anvu didn’t know what he was talking about, before registering that the fairy had teleported across the room. That was... annoying. After seeing how much Zelda abused her warping powers to prank him back when she’d first learned how to do it, he wasn’t sure how he felt about having another companion that could teleport. He also suspected that Inrah could as well, since it was taught to any sheikah capable of magic, which meant he had at least three speed demons that he couldn’t hope to keep up with. Wonderful.

He didn’t say any of this aloud, of course. His face completely neutral, he replied, “I was going to find the source of that tapping noise. Can’t sleep, so I might as well be productive.”

Vaen frowned and crossed his arms in a disapproving manner, although it lost its effect when he had to turn his head at almost a 90 degree angle just to look Anvu in the eyes. “You really think going alone, while everyone else is asleep, is a good idea?” He inquired, still whispering.

Anvu’s initial response was a deadpan expression that conveyed, ‘Why else would I be here?’ When the shorter man’s stance didn’t change, he looked back towards the crumbling pathway ahead and started walking. “If you’re so concerned about me being by myself, you’re welcome to come with me,” he offered nonchalantly, not looking back.

Vaen’s hardly contained indignant squeaks were all he heard from the fairy for the next few seconds before a bright green light suddenly washed over the cavern. Anvu stopped, obviously interested in what was happening, but the glow vanished as quickly as it had come. Confused, he looked back at Vaen, who was rubbing his hands together with satisfaction and standing next to a floating orb of green magic.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Anvu asked with a raised eyebrow. He really hoped he wouldn’t respond with simply ‘magic.’

Vaen grinned, clearly proud of his superior knowledge of spells. (He was the Great Fairy of Magic, so it was to be expected, but he still reveled in it.) “That is Farore’s Wind,” he declared, taking a step back. “It’s so that if I get lost following you around, I can always teleport back to the entrance at a moment’s notice.”

So his teleportation range wasn’t naturally infinite. Good to know.

Anvu let himself stare at the bobbing orb of divine magic for a second more before shrugging and returning to his course. “Guess that means you’re coming along?”

Vaen huffed, disappointed that he didn’t leave the gerudo gawking in awe, but quickly began jogging after him anyway. “Hey, someone ought to watch your back. I doubt it’ll be you.”

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t get a response.

The two walked silently along the crumbling path for a while, both noting the varying states of disrepair that the gargoyles they passed were in. There was one towards the end that appeared mostly intact, resembling a moblin carved out of stone. Anvu had never seen a moblin in person, but it looked fairly similar to the sketches he’d seen in monster guidebooks from the Hyrulean royal library. As they passed it, he noticed a faint stream of smoke rising from its mouth. Distracted by the sight, his feet stumbled over a rock, but he was able to quickly correct himself and continue walking. He hoped Vaen would ignore his clumsiness and keep quiet. Thankfully, he did exactly that.

Anvu paused once they reached a large doorway of sorts. Beyond it was an intact hall, with moblin gargoyles mounted on pillars. The biggest difference he noticed between the new area ahead and the path they had just traversed was that the area ahead had walls surrounding the road, whereas the first chamber had a goddesses-know-how-far-down drop on either side of the pavement. Due to it being more enclosed, the room ahead was significantly darker.

Vaen appeared largely unaffected by the lack of lighting, but Anvu wasn’t about to trip over his own feet when he could easily light the way. He stopped in his tracks, causing Vaen to bump into him, and snapped, summoning a fireball the size of his head over his right palm. Instead of the usual reds and oranges of a flame, it glowed a bright white rimmed with pale green. Unnatural as it was, it chased away the nearby shadows, which was the intended outcome.

After taking a step back, Vaen admired the fireball with curiosity. Anvu noticed his steady gaze and shrugged. “It only looks that way because I’m an inexperienced caster,” he explained, looking down at his companion.

Interestingly, Vaen furrowed his eyebrows in confusion prior to looking back up at him. “Who told you that?” He asked with a frown.

He mirrored the expression. “Zelda did. Why?”

“Because...” He hesitated, contemplating whether or not he should continue. His pause made Anvu feel uneasy. “Well, either the princess doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or she lied to you.”

A small knot of worry began to tie itself in Anvu’s stomach. A lie? No, she would never. Maybe Zelda was just as inexperienced as he was, he tried to tell himself. It’s not like she’d been practicing magic for her entire life... that’s what he wanted to believe right now, but that was a blatant lie. Of _course_ she knew her way around magic. But... why would she lie to him? “What do you mean?” He ventured, keeping his inner turmoil to himself.

Nervously, the fairy rubbed the back of his neck. Once again, the delay was maddening, allowing for Anvu’s thoughts to spiral into more and more outlandish and terrifying conclusions. He was only pulled back into reality when Vaen cleared his throat to get his attention. “Uhh... an inexperienced fireball would sputter and fizzle out, not glow a different color.”

Immediately, Anvu narrowed his eyes down at his shorter partner. Something was definitely amiss. “Not what I meant.”

By now, Vaen was very pointedly avoiding eye contact, choosing to stare at one of the many moblin statues up ahead. However, he eventually spoke up, to Anvu’s mild surprise. “Uh, green fireballs... er... first of all, everyone has a tendency to lean towards either sacred or dark magic. Most people specialize in sacred magic, a couple are right in the middle, and dark is very, very rare... Some spells are universal, but others are affected by where you fall on the magic spectrum, and some are unique and whatnot... what I’m trying to say is, uh... green fireballs are a sign of a dark magic user.”

Oh.

_Oh._

That would certainly explain why his best friend would lie to him. At first, he was mad at her. He had every right to know his own power, didn’t he? His own fate?! Why should _Zelda_ get to decide what he does and doesn’t know about himself?! That’s his own magic, his own destiny, and she... she...

His boiling anger was soon replaced by guilt when he realized why she’d done it. Subconsciously, he rubbed his wrist, which was currently covered by the arm wraps of his disguise. If it weren’t for her, he’d be dead now. They both knew that. And now, despite his initial ire, he wanted to thank her for keeping his own secrets from him. She’d saved him from his own fear. It still lingered in him like a poisonous fog, but by this point in his life, he knew how to at least control it a little. It was because of her deception that he had the time to learn how, so perhaps he could put his initial feelings of betrayal behind him. 

The silence after Vaen had revealed the truth was deafening. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that Anvu could again feel himself breathe and focus on a sound other than his suddenly racing heart, he found that there was no sound to latch on to. Slowly, he looked back down at Vaen, who was staring up at him with an unreadable expression. He was waiting for a reaction; that much was clear.

Anvu sighed, forcefully exhaling through his nose. The lights of his dark fire danced across his vision. “How bad is it?” He asked, his voice much quieter than he expected. “If... if I use dark magic...”

Vaen was already shaking his head. “It doesn’t have to mean anything if you don’t let it. Just because you were made to be one way doesn’t mean you’re bound to that path for the rest of your life.”

He knew the fairy was trying to help, but Anvu still snorted at his words. “Easy for you to say,” he muttered, making his fireball vanish with a wave of his hand.

To his surprise, the green and white light reappeared a moment later. He stared at his hand at first, wondering if he was somehow creating the light without realizing it, but his attention soon shifted down to Vaen. The fairy - _Hylia’s Great Fairy_ \- was holding out his right hand, his own orb of green fire hovering above it. His gaze was transfixed on the flickering magic. 

“No,” he replied, his voice even quieter than Anvu’s. His bright green eyes matched the fire perfectly. “It’s not easy. And it never will be.” He swiftly closed his fist, extinguishing the flame. “You just have to keep moving forward from it.”

In the blink of an eye, Vaen vanished in a soft violet light, shifting into his small pixie form. He hovered right by Anvu’s head, commanding his full attention. “Don’t worry about the fire; I’ll be your light for now. So let’s find out what’s waiting for us in this tower.”

Anvu blinked up at the fairy floating nearby. He wasn’t sure where to even begin sorting out his thoughts at the moment, but he did have one pressing question. “Why?” He asked, his throat feeling inexplicably dry. “Why are you helping me?”

Vaen didn’t respond at first. His expression was unreadable in his current form, and Anvu could only guess what he was thinking. “Because...” He hesitated again, choosing his next words carefully. “Nobody was there for me. And I don’t want you to... I don’t want you to be like me.”

Without another word, the pixie fluttered farther into the darkened hallway, taking his bright glow with him. Mutely, Anvu followed, following his newfound guide deeper into the corridor and wondering what he meant by that. The darkness of the temple felt impenetrable, and he was sure his simple fireballs wouldn’t have been able to light it up, but Vaen’s light chased away the shadows with ease. As they made their way towards the heart of the temple, Anvu realized how much he needed other people in his life to continue on living.

But... did they need him as well?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve edited dialogue before, but this is the only chapter so far where I’ve gone back and completely changed the ending after initially posting it. Let’s just say that the first version was written at 1:00 AM, and it _showed_. I hope this version is better.
> 
> Kind of unrelated, but do you guys have any thoughts on Age of Calamity? Curious to see how everyone feels about this reveal Nintendo dropped out of nowhere, Origami King-style.
> 
> Edit: The next update might take a minute - I got unexpectedly busy, not to mention I’m trying to work out where exactly I want this story to go. This entire fic has been an experiment in how much I can just keep writing without planning or revisions, which is certainly one way to write, but to get to the plot I actually do have in mind I’m gonna need to step back for a minute and focus on other things while I think.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so this fic... is a mess. I’ve had a lot of ideas for it, but I started writing it with no planning whatsoever, so they’ve all kind of fallen flat against each other. It’s just not working. I don’t think I can pull this story together enough to fix it, but a rewrite might happen in the future (with much more planning). In fact, I’m hoping to start a rewrite later on (as a completely different fic) with most of the same characters, so I’ll likely add a final chapter to this one when it releases to inform anyone who might still be reading this. But for now, I think I’m going to stop adding chapters to this. In my opinion, it’s too far gone. If you have any tips or comments that you think I should hear before scrapping this and working on the revision, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
> 
> In the meantime, I started working on this chapter a while ago, and while I don’t see me finishing it, I might as well post it as a final tidbit of this story. Link and Val deserve it, since I plan on cutting them out of the rewrite. (RIP, they just didn’t fit in with the new plot)

Rain softly splattered onto the high walls of the castle, the thick morning mist obscuring the stone citadel. Castle Town was often known for its fair weather, a nice temperate climate in between Eldin and Upper Lanayru, but this round of awful humidity and storms had lingered since the day before last. Rumor had it that other provinces of Hyrule were afflicted by strange weather as well. The tales of an unending blizzard in the Peaks was more than believable, and frequent storms in Eldin weren’t _unheard_ of, but there were also wilder claims on the Desert Province experiencing levels of precipitation previously alien to the area. Some of the more speculative Hyruleans theorized that it was a warning from the goddesses, or perhaps the beginning of a punishment for Hyrule’s forgotten wrongdoings.

Val wasn’t sure what to think. Perched on the edge of one of the castle’s turrets, he watched as fat raindrops collided with every surface in sight, no dry land visible past the misty curtain. Still, he could hear the shouts of soldiers training in the courtyards below, the clang of metal against metal ringing clear through the ominous thunder that hung over the land. It reminded him of his own days as a Knight of Hyrule, although he specifically had a stubborn insistence on wearing anything but true armor in training. Even when he was young, he’d been overconfident to a fault. Maybe that was where Link got it from.

Speaking of which, he couldn’t seem to find the soldier’s bright blonde hair amidst the crowds of helms he now saw, leaning over the edge of the turret to watch the aspiring knights train. Had he finally decided that wearing a helmet might be a good idea? No, Val wouldn’t count on it; Link would be caught dead before admitting he was just as mortal as the other trainees. It was more likely that he was simply not on the training fields at this moment.

Unlike Link, Val didn’t truly have to worry about physical injuries, so he saw no reason why he couldn’t jump right off the turret and onto the ground far below. So that’s exactly what he did. He had never been the most graceful of Hylians, but Val landed smoothly on the damp grass below, his feet not leaving a dent on the emerald blades. His cape drifted in the wind for a moment before settling down on his back, the red fabric standing out against his shining armor and the dreary fog clinging to the earth.

Another perk of someone in his situation was that he never had to worry about being noticed. As he watched the soldiers spar, from their level this time, not a single one even turned in his direction. He was thankful for that; he wasn’t interested in answering questions on his invulnerability to falling from great heights.

“Hey!” A commanding voice called from somewhere on his right. “What are you doing, standing around?” Lazily, he turned to see the source of the voice, and jolted when he saw the six foot woman marching straight for him. Many things about her caught his attention - her snow white hair, the six red triangles tattooed around her ruby eyes, perhaps even the crackling blue blade strapped to her back that repelled every raindrop even remotely close to it - but what scared him most about her was that _she was coming right for him._ She knew he was there. She’d _seen_ him.

Stunned, Val took a step back, but that didn’t deter the sheikah woman in the slightest. Goddesses, the fact that she was a sheikah alone should have been enough to chill him to the bone - weren’t they all but extinct? That didn’t matter now, though. Clearly, they weren’t all gone, as evidenced by the terrifying behemoth of a warrior who was now mere inches away from the 5’4” excuse for a captain shivering in a rain he couldn’t even feel.

“S-sorry,” he stuttered, stumbling backwards. He hadn’t been prepared for any form of interaction in the slightest, especially not one with such a poor start. “I was s-searching for a soldier in training, uh, Link. His name is L-Link.”

The general continued glaring down at him with arms crossed, ignoring the raindrops running down her face and dripping off of her chin, studying every detail about the man in front of her. It was clear she knew something was off about him, and he only hoped she hadn’t seen him fall off the wall of the castle and land unharmed. He must have looked beyond suspicious without that detail. He’d already done a fine job of looking like he didn’t belong; the last thing he needed was for her to assume him a monster as well.

The seconds began to drag on, the only sounds coming from the two being the sheikah’s barely audible breathing. Val tried not to squirm under her inspection as she finally looked back up at his face, having sufficiently memorized his armor and stature. “The library,” she said after an impossibly long pause, her breath fogging in the tense air. 

Val remained silent, unsure of whether or not she would say anything more, but those were her final words before turning around and marching away, off to monitor the progress of her actual troops. He felt like releasing a held breath, but instead he stood as still as a statue, wondering what that woman planned to do about him - if anything. He hadn’t made the best first impression, but she’d also dismissed him rather quickly. She’d probably realized that he wasn’t actually one of her charges, and thus didn’t want to waste her breath on him. Either way, he thanked the golden goddesses for that ordeal being over.

Hastily, Val began backpedaling before turning around and running for the edge of the courtyard he’d landed in, trying to find the nearest door inside. He’d known this castle like the back of his hand, but it appeared that it had been updated since he’d last been there. Luckily, he could see where a couple of soldiers were entering the yard, apparently arriving late, which gave him the precise location of his exit. He also noted that the fierce woman from earlier began yelling at them, but he slipped inside the castle’s hall instead of sticking around and eavesdropping.

After sticking to the left wall and navigating through the castle blindly, he eventually came to a portion that he recognized, and from there he was able to find the library with ease. At least that hadn’t moved. It was a incredibly large collection of history tomes, grimoires, and everything in between, so he reasoned that it would be incredibly hard to relocate. He also couldn’t think of a conceivable reason as to why it would need to be moved, but that was just him.

Link wasn’t terribly hard to find. The massive library was almost empty, and the blonde knight was close to the entrance, sitting at a desk and writing on something he couldn’t see. Val casually made his way towards him, although he kept looking back over his shoulder to see if somebody was watching him. He was still shaken up after his encounter with the sheikah.

However, Link was the only one who noticed him, as usual. He didn’t acknowledge this until the captain stopped right by the desk and leaned lightly on its side, his clothes not leaving even a trace of water on the wood.

“A letter?” Val asked, raising his eyebrows at the parchment on the desk. “Since when did you write letters? Actually, since when have you even known enough people to justify a letter?”

Link rolled his eyes at him, which was a fairly standard response to anything he said. “You know, I’m actually a very outgoing and likable guy when I’m not around you,” he replied as he set his quill down.

Val smiled. “Good for you. Finally decided to be friendly, huh?” When he didn’t immediately respond, the captain tucked his hair behind a pointed ear. “So, uh... the sheikah... are a thing.”

This time, Link raised his eyebrows at Val. “I see you’re as observant as ever.”

“Well, they were practically unheard of last time I was around!” He said defensively, throwing his hands up for emphasis. “Did I just happen to meet the one sheikah in all of Hyrule, or have things seriously changed that much since I’ve been gone?”

“See, it’s funny that you should say that.” Link spun on his chair to fully face Val, propping his elbows on his knees and rubbing his hands together. “Yes and no. Yes, because the sheikah have actually been back for at least a century, primarily in Kakariko and the Blue Village. And no, because...” He glanced back and forth to ensure no one was watching before continuing. “Last week or so, the sheikah around the castle have been disappearing - all eleven of them, save for Impa. She’s the only one I know of that’s still around. I’m writing this letter to a sheikah friend of mine in Kakariko to see what’s going on there, or maybe ask if she knows what’s up. Her fiancé was one of the royal guards, so I imagine if anyone knows why they’re all vanishing into thin air, it’s her. And, well, Impa, because she knows everything. But I don’t want to ask her.”

Val was about to ask why, but it occurred to him that Impa was probably the general he’d encountered in the courtyard. “Yeah, about that,” he began, tugging at his collar. “When you say she knows everything... to put it bluntly, she saw me.”

At first, Link froze in shock, but he quickly fixed his expression to a more neutral state. “I think the sheikah have an eye for seeing the truth,” he noted as he leaned back, “so I guess we should have expected this. I’m told it takes a lot of training, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be Impa. Don’t think there’s any real limit to what they can see... That being said, I can give you some tips on how to make a strong invisibility charm, if you want to try anyways.”

Val sighed. “Sure, but it’s a little late now. The damage is done.”

Link shrugged in response. “What, did she see you doing something rather out of place?”

“I jumped off the wall of the castle right in front of her.”

Link suddenly began coughing profusely, trying to mask his laughter. “And you wonder where I get my impulsiveness from, with you as my role model!” He managed through his poorly concealed mirth.

Val crossed his arms and cast his gaze towards a wall. “Look, if you chose to use me as your one and only model of what a normal member of society looks like, that’s your fault, not mine.”

Link didn’t respond at first, his coughs and laughs fading away until they ended in a sigh. “Still... if she didn’t say anything then, you must’ve looked alright to her,” he pointed out after sitting back up. “I’m sure she would have arrested you on the spot if you didn’t.”

“Hmm... well, since Impa apparently won’t be causing us any trouble in the foreseeable future, what else do you know about these disappearances?”

Noticing the way Val leaned ever so slightly forward in interest, Link paused to try and think about anything else he might know. “Nothing, really,” he decided, twirling a loose strand of blonde hair around his finger. “The first disappearance was a little over a week ago, maybe. Haven’t seen any except Impa for the past two days. I guess it could be nothing, though; maybe they’ve all had to go somewhere else for additional training. I have no idea. But the one sheikah at the castle I was close to was acting really fidgety over the past week, but every time I asked, they denied anything was wrong. Haven’t seen them very often ever since they were promoted to the royal guard - the sheikah get promotions far too easily compared to the other races, and it’s extremely unfair - but the few times we did talk, they looked... distracted.”

“Obviously,” Val huffed, blowing his long bangs away from his face for half a second. “If all of the Knights of Hyrule suddenly defected at the same time, I’d get pretty antsy too.”

“Look, you asked for information,” Link reminded him as he tied his selected strand of hair into a knot. “For all I know, the sheikah were traitors too, and the entire castle just decided to abandon ship at the same time.” He paused, staring at the tangle in his windblown hair, as if he was just now realizing he’d done that. “I guess it’s not outside the realm of possibility,” he continued as he tucked his hair behind his ear, “even though they didn’t strike me as particularly traitorous. I guess you never know a guy, huh? One moment you’re best buddies, and the next they stab you in the back.”

Closing his eyes, Val leaned his head back until it bumped against the library wall. “We’re talking about the sheikah, Link. Focus.”

“Yeah, I know,” Link said with a flippant hand wave. “I’m just making a point here.”

Val considered his claim briefly. “I suppose it would make sense, though...” He muttered, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling. “If they were traitors...”

Link scooted to the edge of his seat, trying to catch more than just snippets of whatever his friend was saying. “I’m sorry, but are you seeing something here that I’m not?”

“I... well...” Val shifted on his feet, still not looking down. “I’ve just been thinking, after I heard the princess was looking for the Triforce... you know what happens to a wheel when it breaks?”

Confused by the seemingly random question, Link shrugged. “It breaks, I guess,” he reasoned. “It becomes useless.”

“But imagine you’re on a wagon,” Val pressed on, “and one of the wheels breaks. You don’t have a spare. What do you do?”

Link frowned. His own experience with wagons was remarkably limited. “You abandon the wagon,” he decided with a nod. “It’s better to go by foot than to continue in the wagon and risk injury over a broken wheel. What is this, some backwards method of you teaching me basic self-preservation instincts?”

Val grinned slightly. “Not what I intended, but sure.” However, his smile soon faded. “No, it was meant to be an analogy. You can’t continue living with something broken that’s so essential. Eventually, it will cause more problems that you’ll now have to solve.”

The knight-in-training’s frown deepened. “If this is about the Triforce... frankly, I don’t see how it connects. The relic wasn’t essential to us, was it? The goddesses left is as a gift or something.”

“You really think breaking something that powerful wouldn’t have its consequences?” Val countered, finally looking down. “The strange weather patterns, the traitors in the castle - bad things are happening now.”

“I hate to be the one to break this to you, buddy, but bad things are always happening in Hyrule.”

“But not without Courage! Maybe I am just paranoid, but let’s say you have a point. So Ganon’s returning, or Vaati, or whatever that Din-forsaken twili invader was named-”

“Zant. I see you’ve been keeping up with your history books as always.”

“-and now, we have nothing to stop it! No, I don’t know that the Hero has always had the Triforce at his disposal when saving Hyrule, but he’s had courage. The Princesses had courage too - that’s how they saved the realm! And now, with courage in pieces...”

Link crossed his arms. “You think that just because some old relic was broken, everyone in the kingdom suddenly became cowards?”

“It would certainly explain the royal guard abandoning their posts,” Val said with a nod.

The knight shook his head. “Look, I see your point - broken Triforce wasn’t our best idea yet. But let strange weather be weather! We can help the princess restore the relic, sure, but I doubt it will solve the world’s problems in the blink of an eye. You’re putting too much faith in the goddesses for this one.” Val’s face twitched, yet he stayed silent.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fan fiction, so tips and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> My tumblr: [gleam-and-darken](https://gleam-and-darken.tumblr.com/)


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